Snubbed schools more likely to get repairs cash if they shut

A north east trust snubbed for cash for repairs three years in a row was told its latest bids would have stood a better chance if its academies had shut.

Figures show schools in the region were most likely to have bids to the condition improvement fund (CIF) rejected – with only 1 per cent of available funding going to projects in the area.

Experts have argued the region has been treated as a “poor relation” for a number of years, amid calls for the government to give leaders a clearer idea of how to secure success.

Chris Zarraga, of Schools North East, said many buildings across the north east were ageing and needed substantial investment in basic maintenance, structural deterioration, heating systems and roofing.

“If policymakers are serious about tackling regional inequality and delivering on commitments to opportunity, then ensuring children can learn in safe, well-maintained school buildings must be a priority.”

Who gets CIF?

CIF is only available to standalone academies or trusts with fewer than five schools wanting to keep a building “safe and in good working order”.

Larger academy chains and council schools get capital funding allocated automatically through a separate route.

Department for Education data, published towards the end of last month, showed less than half (1,706) of the 3,925 schools eligible for CIF applied.

Overall, 684 schools were awarded grants for 813 projects. The number of successful schools and applications were both up slightly on 12 months ago.

However, building company Surveyors to Education noted 27 per cent more CIF projects were given the go-ahead in 2023-24. This was “a reminder of how inflationary pressures have impacted delivery costs over the past three years”.

Two bids from the Smart Multi-Academy Trust in the north east – for sums between £100,000 and £150,000 – were snubbed in the latest round. It hasn’t lodged a successful application since 2023.

New boiler

One of the bids this year was for a new boiler. DfE feedback said a gas-safe engineer’s report condemning the boilers “would have further improved the application, along with clear justification and evidence of full or partial school closure”.

The other application was to replace a dated heating system at one of Smart’s primaries. A fire – due to the problem – briefly closed the school.

But the DfE felt “more detailed incident reports and maintenance records citing class interruptions and the possibility of school closure… could have been included to strengthen the case for urgency”.

Colin Lofthouse the chief executive of Smart, said the comments “stuck in the craw”.

“We’re making it limp along. It’s almost like … if we didn’t have an estates function that was trying to keep the stuff going, we’d have been in a better position.

“If you’re doing your best to stop school closure and if that then prejudices you from getting money, that’s difficult to take.”

CIF guidance states schemes considered highest priority would be those “addressing legislative compliance, health and safety, impacted learning and critical replacement of coal-fired heating systems with low carbon alternatives – where there is a risk of school closure”.

£5m for the north east

Overall, 1 per cent (£5 million) of the £457 million allocated to schools through CIF went to those in the north east. This is despite the region accounting for 5 per cent of eligible academies.

Yorkshire and the Humber was allocated the next lowest sum (£33 million), while the south east (£94 million) and London (£85 million) were given the most.

Jenny Fram, of property company BTG Eddisons, said there had been a “tendency” for the north east to be a “poor relation” when it came to CIF.

“If figures were published on all applications regardless of success this would give a broader picture and help tell the full story of success and failure, and how applications can be improved.”

Schools in the north east were also the most likely to be snubbed. Just one in four in the area that applied were successful.

This was up on the 16 per cent recorded last year but well below the next lowest region, Yorkshire and the Humber (33 per cent).

Funding fears

Fram said applications geared towards improving a school’s safety were “by far the most likely to win funding at the moment”.

Analysis produced by her company suggests 32 per cent of successful projects were to improve fire safety, compared with 17 per cent for heating work and 14 per cent for repairing roofs.

Tim Warneford, a school buildings and funding expert, said the continued reduction in funding for building envelope schemes, such as roofs and windows, would “have an adverse impact on the thermal efficiency and sustainability agenda. Not so much fabric first as fabric last.”

CIF’s replacement

Earlier this year, the DfE announced plans to launch a replacement programme for CIF by autumn 2028.

The new system would “make it easier for eligible responsible bodies to access this maintenance funding so they will no longer need to submit full bids”.

This would 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”.

Zarraga argued decisions must “take greater account of the challenges faced by communities with persistent disadvantage and the significant pressures on special schools.

“[This will ensure] children are learning in buildings that are fit for purpose, and that funding is targeted where it can have the greatest impact on children’s lives and opportunities.”