The government’s school condition improvement fund (CIF) will be replaced with a new programme that will not require full bids and a new framework will govern the use of surplus school land amid falling rolls.
The Department for Education has published its 10-year education estates strategy, which also sets out an “ambition” for all secondary schools in England to have “inclusion bases” where “pupils can access targeted support that bridges the gap between mainstream and specialist provision”.
The Department said the strategy represents a “shift to more proactive management, long-term strategic maintenance and renewal that prioritises condition need, risk and resilience alongside delivering high-quality new buildings where they are needed”.
Here’s everything schools need to know.
1. Replacing CIF by 2028
The DfE will introduce a new programme by autumn 2028 to replace the condition improvement fund, which was placed under review by the Labour government in 2024.
CIF is the mechanism for standalone academies or trusts with fewer than five schools to apply for funding for projects aimed at keeping buildings safe and in good working order.
Currently, the fund works through competitive bidding on an annual basis.
In 2024, just 35 per cent of schools that applied for the funding received cash, with the DfE spending a total of £460 million.
The strategy said government will replace this system “to make it easier for eligible responsible bodies to access this maintenance funding so they will no longer need to submit full bids”.
It says this will be “enabled by data transformation with more granular and timely data on the estate” with trusts and councils “collecting their own data in line with common standards and sharing data with the department”.
2. More data collection and guidance
The strategy also set out plans to improve data collection and sharing between responsible bodies – trusts and councils – and the DfE.
The “managing your education estate” database will be launched this month.
This will “bring together estates related guidance, tools, support, programmes, funding and data in one place” in an accessible format.
In April 2026, government will release new technical standards guides to help schools and councils collect data.
It will also ask schools and councils to make an annual return from autumn 2026 on how they are meeting the expectations of the government’s school estate management standards.
The DfE will also start to test ways this data can be collected in 2026-27, with national rollout expected by autumn 2027. Data sharing between the government and schools will then be launched by 2028.
3. Making use of surplus land and buildings
The government will also develop a “decision-making framework” for schools and councils to “better utilise their surplus land and buildings” during “demographic change”.
Empty land or classrooms could be used to join up with family hubs, housing, neighbourhood health services and youth centres.
Last month, Schools Week revealed the government was looking at turning empty classrooms into “community health hubs”.
The DfE will pilot these pathways and develop the framework by 2026.
This will “recognise that the school estate must remain flexible to respond to local need as it changes over time” and “optimise our collective resources”.
4. Little information on inclusion bases
The strategy comes after government announced it will expect every secondary school in England to have an “inclusion base” where “pupils can access targeted support that bridges the gap between mainstream and specialist provision”.
According to the Department, the term “inclusion base” will be “underpinned by two models”. “Support bases” will be commissioned and funded by individual settings and academy trusts. “Specialist bases” would then be commissioned and funded by councils.
The strategy includes little additional information on how the inclusion bases will be delivered, as it says more will be revealed in the schools white paper.
Schools Week has asked the DfE when schools will be expected to have an inclusion base by, and who will decide whether a school needs a “support” or “specialist” base.
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