Department For Education
Overview
The Department for Education allocates funding each year to help maintain and improve the condition of school buildings and grounds.
In any given financial year, eligible schools can access funding through either:
- school condition allocations (SCA), with funds paid to eligible bodies responsible for maintaining school buildings
- the condition improvement fund (CIF), a bidding round with funds paid directly to single academy trusts, small multi-academy trusts (MATs), small voluntary aided (VA) bodies and sixth-form colleges
In addition, devolved formula capital (DFC) is allocated for individual schools and other eligible institutions to spend on capital projects that meet their own priorities.
Who the funding is for
School condition funding includes capital allocations for:
- local authorities and local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained nursery schools
- local voluntary-aided bodies and voluntary-aided schools
- academies and large multi-academy trusts (MATs) and sponsors
- sixth-form colleges
- special schools not maintained by the local authority
- special post-16 institutions with eligible students
Eligibility for SCA for the 2023 to 2024 financial year
Schools are either part of bodies eligible forSCAor are eligible forCIFdepending on their size and type.
Local authorities, larger MATs and larger VA school bodies receive direct SCA to invest in priorities across the schools for which they are responsible. Smaller academy trusts, smaller VA bodies and sixth-form colleges are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).
CIF eligible schools have been invited to bid into the fund for 2023 to 2024. If a school has been invited to bid for CIF in the 2023 to 2024 financial year, their responsible body will not receive any SCA funding on their behalf. Schools invited to CIF should therefore apply for funding if they have condition investment requirements.
To receive direct SCA, multi-academy trusts and VA bodies must meet both eligibility criteria:
- the trust or VA body must have had 5 or more open schools at the start of September 2022
- those open schools (or their predecessor schools) must have had at least 3,000 pupils counted in the spring 2022 census or the 2021 to 2022 individualised learner record (ILR)
For special and alternative-provision schools (including pupil referral units), we multiply the pupil count by 4.5 for the purposes of SCA eligibility for the 2023 to 2024 financial year. For example, we would count a MAT with 1,000 pupils in special schools as having 4,500 pupils. This reflects the fact that these schools tend to have lower pupil numbers for their size and more complex facilities.
For eligibility, we count all pupils that are sole, dual-main, or dual-subsidiary enrolled. If pupils are registered at more than one institution, we divide the count by the number of institutions that the pupil is registered at. For example, pupils dual registered at a mainstream school and a pupil referral unit (PRU) would have their count divided by 2 at both institutions.
For nursery schools and sixth forms, we use the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) pupils rather than headcount.
We notify academy trusts andVAschool bodies that are eligible forSCAeach autumn. Eligibility should not be assumed unless it has been confirmed.
All of these institution types are eligible for devolved formula capital.
Funding allocations for the 2022 to 2023 financial year
Capital funding is based on financial years. For the latest funding amounts see:
How the funding is calculated
See for information on eligibility and how the funding is calculated.
What you can spend it on
See for guidance on the purpose of the funding, what you can spend it on and over what time period.
Previous years funding
See the National Archives website for SCA and DFC allocations for previous years.
The healthy pupils capital fund was a one-year fund for the 2018 to 2019 financial year only.
In the 2018 budget, the government announced an extra 400 million of capital funding for schools in England for the 2018 to 2019 financial year. See the additional capital funding page on the National Archives for more information.
In 2020, the Prime Minister announced an additional 560 million for repairs and upgrades to school buildings, on top of funding already allocated for the 2020 to 2021 financial year.
Good estate management
We expect academy trusts and other bodies responsible for schools to manage their school estate strategically and maintain their estate in a safe working condition. This has also been set out in the Academy Trust Handbook 2021. Good estate management for schools (GEMS) includes guidance on developing an estates strategy and asset management plan, and a self-assessment tool to identify estate management priorities. Managing asbestos guidance for schools sets out further advice on asbestos.
Responsible bodies must ensure they secure value for money through appropriate procurement routes. For large projects, the school buildings construction framework is available for use and should be considered as part of project development planning.
The Trust Network
The Trust Network is a group of academy trusts who are committed to good estate management, and support schools to build their capability and practise. They share best practice, exchange knowledge and, where needed, form a single voice to disc