Smarter Estates Planning for the Next Decade

A Decade of National Renewal

The publication of the DfE’s Education Estate Strategy in February marked a step change in the delivery of estate management, capital funding, and the ongoing maintenance of the estate. It promises a decade of national renewal to address the well-documented condition and maintenance backlog affecting the education estate. Now there has been time for the sector to reflect on this ambitious plan, Jon Jones, Director of Education Estates Services for professional building consultancy, MAC, unpicks the detail of what it really means for estates planning, funding and renewal.

Manage, Improve and Renew, Build and Rebuild

The strategy is structured around three pillars: Manage; Improve and Renew; and Build and Rebuild the Estate.

Manage the Estate focuses on proactive and preventative good estate management practices with a significant and new focus on data and future two-way information sharing between Responsible Bodies and DfE.

Improve and Renew the Estate considers longer term maintenance programmes prioritising condition need, risk and resilience to address maintenance and condition issues in a more strategic way and allow for adaptation to the impacts of climate change in terms of ventilation, overheating and outdoor space.

Build and Rebuild will focus on life expired blocks and addressing severe condition need through the delivery of rebuilding projects to create a high quality estate while also addressing sufficiency and suitability needs including School Based Nurseries, Inclusion Bases, and the FE estate.

Source: Education Estates Strategy, DfE, 2026

Developing your Estates Plan

Alongside the strategy, new step-by-step guidance was launched on how to ‘Improve and renew your long-term estates plan’. This emphasises the new focus on proactive as opposed to reactive estate management practices through a planned and evidence based approach with robust data and information at its heart.

Data and Digital Transformation

The most immediate change to support this is the launch of the ‘Manage your Education Estate’ service. This digital estate management platform will be a single route for schools and Trusts to access estates information and services. It will allow you to access estate guidance, tools and data and the ambition is that this system will evolve to provide a two-way data transfer of estates information between DfE and Responsible Bodies. In the medium-term, this is likely to inform decision-making and investment through a condition and evidence-based approach to maintenance funding.

Commissioning Condition Surveys

Managing and understanding your education estate relies on an assessment of its condition. Specific guidance has been published on ‘Commissioning a condition survey’ providing a ‘Standard condition survey template’ and methodology covering a fixed group of elements and a ‘Site-Block-Room’ approach to spatial coverage. This aims to standardise locally collected condition data and will potentially underpin the development of common estates data standards and two-way data sharing between DfE and Responsible Bodies, with the ambition for this to be introduced by 2028. Importantly, it also provides data and evidence to develop your estates plan and may also inform decision-making on future allocation of capital funding.

Self-Assessment of Estate Management Practices

With this shift to a proactive and data-centric approach, there is now a greater focus on the School Estate Management Standards (SEMS) and accountability for their delivery. These cover the policies, procedures and processes you should have in place and should be read in conjunction with the Estate Management Competency Framework which sets out the skills and experience needed to deliver them. Previously, this was a reflective approach to identifying gaps and planning your own approach to good estate management. However, the biggest change is that by Autumn 2026, you will also need to complete a ‘light touch’ self-assessment return on the School Estate Management Standards (SEMS)via the new Manage Your Education Estate Portal.

Shifting from a Bid-Based to an Evidence Based Funding Model

In the Autumn Budget, long-term education estate maintenance funding allocations were announced to support longer-term planning, with almost £3bn per year committed by 2034/35. The strategy now demonstrates how this will be delivered, with funding certainty for Responsible Bodies eligible for School Condition Allocation now stable until 2028/29.

For other Responsible Bodies, one of the most significant announcements is that Condition Improvement Fund will be replaced from Autumn 2028 with a new programme that will be designed to remove the need for submission of full bids. While more information will be released in due course, there is no doubt that this further demonstrates a shift to a condition-led and evidence-based approach.

Separately, a new Renewal and Retrofit Programme will be piloted from April 2026 in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber and the South East. This programme will deliver larger-scale renewal and condition projects that also increase resilience to climate change and we understand that Responsible Bodies selected for the pilot will be contacted directly, before the programme is expanded from 2027.

Also under this pillar, investment of £3.7bn in High Needs Capital Funding will aim to deliver a transformative expansion of Inclusion Bases. Guidance will also be launched on how the existing estate can be made more inclusive and accessible through high-impact adaptations for SEND pupils rather than developing entirely new provision.

Summary

Overall, the strategy indicates a clear direction of travel towards a more proactive, evidence-based and targeted approach to estate management and capital investment with a shift away from reactive and short-term interventions. With data and digital transformation on the horizon, you should focus on gathering the evidence you need to underpin your estate management practices and estates planning, enabling you to deliver a decade of national renewal within your own school and trust communities.