The schools and academies sector, like many others, is facing an array of challenges at present. These include limited budgets, rising energy and construction costs, a lack of contractor availability and general internal resource pressures and challenges. Furthermore, there is also a wider need to decarbonise the education estate, whilst addressing key condition and compliance challenges concerned with backlog maintenance liabilities. In the face of these challenges, it is essential that a more strategic approach to estate management is adopted and implemented. The Department for Education’s Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS) guide provides step by step tools, guidance, and documentation to support schools and trusts in their journey to develop an effective estate model.

This will include the following approach:

1. Develop an estate management strategy – the development of an estate vision, strategy, and asset management plan will help identify where your estate is now and where it needs to be to support and align with your education vision. Your estate vision and strategy should set out your aspirations of what you want to achieve across the estate.

2. Understand your buildings and estate – budgets are limited, and all funding invested across the estate needs to add value to the organisation. Ensuring up- to-date and accurate building condition and compliance data is in place across the estate will help to identify key needs and priorities. Without this information, decisions risk being made in isolation, and investments wasted on non-priority areas. For example, investments across the estate should always be prioritised based on health & safety, condition, compliance, and the potential risk towards the teaching and learning environment first. Therefore, keeping assets safe and operational should be the key priority.

3. Create and implement a safe and effective building project delivery model – it is vital to ensure that all projects are effectively designed, specified, and delivered safely and effectively, bringing in competent support as needed. This will maximise effectiveness of investment and maintain compliance with statutory guidance and legislation. This starts with ensuring designs and specifications align with standards and add value to the estate. And are competent, experienced, and vetted contractors being invited to tender for opportunities to provide assurances on workmanship, standards, and quality? Remember, just because a project has started within budget does not mean it will finish on budget. It is therefore vital that robust cost and change control measures are in place to manage and monitor cost, risk, quality, and time.

4. Operate and maintain your estate effectively – if buildings and assets are not maintained effectively, they tend to fail quicker and unpredictably. Unforeseen failures across the estate have a major impact on set budgets allocated for specific investments and can cause major disruption and risk to the teaching and learning environment. Start with understanding your compliance and maintenance obligations across your estate to ensure you are safe, legal, and compliant. This data must be centrally stored and continually updated and available for monitoring across the estate. Then, it is crucial to ensure competent, qualified, and experienced contractors are delivering all compliance and maintenance services. There may also be opportunities to seek cost reductions, efficiencies and standardisation through combining services across the estate and using local supply chains. Finally, operational data must be reviewed and shared continuously to identify and plan investments across the estate. For example, maintenance inspection reports may identify boilers are due to fail, offering the opportunity to set funds aside early and plan for their replacement, helping to avoid reactive failures that could cause major disruption and excessive costs.

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