The Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) launched their Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme in early 2017. They set it to run through to Autumn 2019 in five separate tranches. The CDC is one of the biggest condition data collection exercises in the UK public sector, and will collect data about the physical condition of school buildings as well as how they are managed.
The Aim
The ESFA have stated that the purpose of this data collection programme is to enable a fair distribution of capital maintenance funding and will be used by the department as follows:
- enabling capital allocation which is informed by school condition
- identifying school blocks in need of replacement
- supporting the development of capital allocations policy
- providing evidence to justify capital bids to treasury
Responsible bodies (and, ultimately, their schools) will benefit from capital allocations. This is based on a consistent assessment across key elements of need. The department will use the data to target aggregated funding allocations. However, it will not be suitable for individual school level decisions without additional information.
The Limitations
For the first time, the CDC will record information on the availability of each school’s building management and compliance documentation. But it will not replace locally held condition surveys. The information obtained during the CDC programme does not and is not intended to replace any of the current arrangements that exist at a responsible body. Specifically the CDC has the following limitations;
- it is not invasive (only visible condition is inspected)
- it is not structural (critical structural repairs may not be identified)
- it does not report on hazardous materials (principally asbestos)
- it does not address critical health and safety requirements such as fire and intruder alarm functionality. Surveyors who observe major health and safety issues will report these directly to the school.
- it does not take into account building use or capacity
- it does not provide descriptions of defects and remedies or cost information for schools or responsible bodies.
How We Can Help
Despite the limitations, data collected during the CDC will be a useful supplement to locally held condition data, and will be helpful as a starting point for the development of local maintenance programmes.
To that end we have created our Education Condition Survey starting at just £900 ex VAT, which will help local schools answer the details not provided by the CDC.
Please contact us here or to discuss booking your Chawton Hill Education Condition Survey;