School Estate Management Standards: raising the bar for children’s safety at school

Academy Trust Handbook

The latest version of the Academy Trust Handbook, published in July 2024, made some notable changes. In particular, the Handbook extended the list of examples where a notice to improve may be issued to include management of the school estate. Including this as an area which could be improved, highlights the importance of ensuring effective estate management.

Other key points raised in the Handbook are that those key people who are responsible for running academy trusts have a duty to keep trusts’ estates safe and well-maintained. Also, an academy trust’s estate is considered both an asset and a mechanism to deliver outcomes for pupils. To effectively manage this asset, the Department for Education expects trusts to be strategic and effective in their efforts to maintain a safe working environment for pupils.

Whilst the Handbook puts emphasis on the need to actively manage school estates, it does not set out how an academy trust might go about doing this. Instead this is covered by the School Estate Management Standards. The Standards provide guidance and a list of expectations for schools to assist them in achieving the objective to maintain a safe working environment for pupils. The decision to issue the Standards shows that the current Government is looking at safeguarding in a broad sense, with a view to improving learning conditions for pupils. It is also supported by recent attempts to further professionalise the estate management in schools, giving greater recognition and potential for more career progression to those working in this area.

School Estate Management Standards

Launched at the Trust Network’s annual estates conference, the School Estate Management Standards set out the essentials that all schools should have in place to ensure full effective estate management. The Standards provide a set of actions that schools should take to manage their estates.

There are four levels of estate management standards which are as follows:

• Level 1 – baseline: the essentials that all schools should have in place.
• Level 2 – transitioning: building on Level 1, Level 2 sets out key transition points in a school’s ongoing journey.
• Level 3 – fully effective: all the components necessary for schools and their responsible bodies to manage their estate effectively.
• Level 4 – advanced: additional activities schools and their responsible bodies could undertake to become advanced practitioners in estate management.

Within each Level, there are core areas and action points. These areas are:

• Strategic estate management
• Planning and organising estate resources
• Understanding and managing land and buildings
• Maintaining the estate
• Health and safety
• Fire safety
• Asbestos
• Legionella
• Digital Technology
• Sustainability

Level 1 is the Level at which all schools should operate. The Standards expect that schools have policies, strategic plans and governance arrangements in place to manage their estates. Other key action points include the need to plan for emergencies, budget accurately and ensure the condition of all the land and buildings is maintained, with any works needed being identified and actioned. There is extensive guidance on the expectations in relation to health and safety, fire safety, asbestos and legionella with up-to-date risk assessments and surveys required to ensure procedures are put in place for the safety of the school.

The Department for Education envisage that schools will start at Level 1 and progress to Level 3. Level 2 covers the same areas as Level 1 but expands on the standards with a detailed and strategic focus, climate action plans are also included. Level 3 is in addition to the standards in Levels 1 and 2 and includes requirements to consider sustainability and digital technology. Level 4 provides an opportunity for academy trusts to become sector leaders in estate management. It is in addition to the standards in the previous levels with more detailed expectations.

Conclusion

In order to meet the expectations in the Academy Trust Handbook and for those generally working in an estates role within schools, more time needs to be spent in actively managing the conditions at school sites. Estate Management for schools is addressed in the Estate Management Competency Framework (published in June 2023) and the School Estate Management Standards discussed in this article. In considering these guidelines, it is important to identify and implement action points that are not already in place, particularly at Level 1. These are a clear set of defined points to refer to and clearly set out any next steps to put in place to ensure that school estates are kept safe, well-managed and operational.