Making the construction and maintenance of school buildings more cost-effective
Issue
Every child should have a place in a safe and well maintained school. We are making changes to the way we invest and distribute capital funding (money for school buildings and equipment) to make sure that:
• there are enough school places where they are needed
• the maintenance and improvement of school buildings is effective and efficient
Actions
To make sure there are enough school places, we are:
• identifying which areas have a need for more school places through the annual school capacity survey (SCAP)
• investing £2.35 billion between 2015 and 2017 to fund new school places - this is in addition to the £5 billion we invested between 2011 and 2015
• funding over 70,000 additional school places through the targeted basic need programme
To support the construction, improvement and maintenance of school buildings, we are:
• opening the first school buildings that were rebuilt or refurbished under the priority school building programme (PSBP)
• investing an extra £2 billion in rebuilding and refurbishing school buildings in the very worst condition through phase 2 of the priority school building programme (PSBP2)
• investing £4.2 billion between 2015 and 2018 through school condition funding allocations - this is in addition to the £5.6 billion we invested between 2011 and 2015
• changing the way we allocate school condition funding so that it reaches the schools that need it the most
• funding the building and equipment costs of new academies and free schools
• using the information we collected through the property data survey programme (PDSP) to find better ways of distributing capital funding
• collecting and publishing information on how the bodies responsible for the maintenance of school buildings (eg local authorities or multi-academy trusts) have used their funding - this will help make these bodies more accountable to local people
Background
We have changed the way we invest and distribute our capital funding to make sure that:
• funding gets to the areas and schools that need it most
• the number of school places keeps pace with population growth
Sebastian James’s independent ‘Review of education capital’, published in April 2011, was part of this process. The review aimed to identify how future spending on school buildings and equipment could provide good value for money.
In May 2011, we launched the PSBP to fulfil our commitment to meet the needs of the 261 schools in the most urgent need of repair.
In May 2012, we launched the PDSP, which allowed us to collect up-to-date information on the condition of school buildings across England. This information is helping us allocate funding where it is needed most.
We have also simplified regulations about school premises for all types of schools, providing a shorter, clearer set of rules about the standards to which schools should be built and maintained. We introduced new regulations for local-authority-maintained schools in October 2012, and made the same changes to the regulations for independent schools in January 2013.
In April 2014 we published local authority basic need scorecards. These show the progress each local authority in England has made in providing new primary school places. The scorecards also show local authorities’ plans to meet demand for new school places by September 2015, along with details of the quality and cost of new places created to date.
Who we’ve consulted
We included the recommendations in Sebastian James’s report in the formal consultation ‘Implementation of the 2010 to 2011 review of education capital’. It ran from 19 July to 11 October 2011.
In the consultation ‘Revised school premises regulations’ we sought views on proposals to revise and simplify the regulations about school premises. The consultation ran from 3 November 2011 to 26 January 2012. We received 175 responses.
In the call for evidence ‘Policy review: asbestos management in schools’ we sought opinions and ideas on how we can better support the people involved in the day-to-day management of asbestos in schools. The call for evidence ran from 31 January to 31 March 2014. We received 51 responses.
Impact
There is limited evidence about how the premises regulations affect groups with the protected characteristics of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, or race. Of these, we consider that the group most likely to be affected by changes to the regulations are those with disabilities.
We will make sure there are regulations about acoustics, lighting, medical accommodation, toilet and washing facilities and water supplies in place. This will ensure people with disabilities are not affected more than anyone else.
There is more information in the equality impact assessment on premises regulations, published on 31 October 2011.
Bills and legislation
The changes we have introduced to the law affecting school buildings are set out in the School Premises (England) Regulations 2012.
From:
Department for Education
The Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP
Lord Nash