Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average number of applications to the Condition Improvement Fund was for projects made by (a) academies, (b) sixth-form colleges and (c) voluntary-aided schools before being successfully selected for funding.

The Department has allocated over £15 billion of capital funding since 2015 for essential maintenance and improvements to schools, including £1.8 billion committed in this financial year. Of this, £456 million has been allocated to 1,033 projects through the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) round for the 2023/24 financial year to 859 eligible schools and sixth form colleges.

CIF is an annual bidding round for stand alone academies, schools in smaller multi-academy trusts and voluntary aided groups, and sixth form colleges to apply for capital funding. The priority for CIF is to address significant condition need to keep buildings safe and in good working order. This includes funding projects to address health and safety issues, building compliance and poor building condition. There were 4,547 academies, sixth form colleges and voluntary aided schools eligible to apply to CIF in 2023/24.

CIF has funded over 11, 000 projects since its first round in the 2015/16 financial year, making a difference to pupils and teachers and helping to create safer schools and colleges.

Since the first round of the CIF in 2015/16, the average number of applications made to the CIF before being successfully selected for funding is 1.22 applications by an academy, 1.64 applications by a sixth form college and 0.4 applications by a voluntary aided school.

Applicants can apply for up to two projects in each application round. Not all applications will be for the same works in every round.

The highest number of separate applications made to the CIF across the nine annual rounds of the programme without being successful is 13 projects by a sixth form college, 4 projects by a voluntary aided school, and 14 projects by an academy. There are a range of reasons why some trusts are repeatedly unsuccessful, including failing to demonstrate urgency, a lack of supporting evidence and inconsistent information, as well as the competitive nature of the grant process. The Department has prioritised those which provided evidence of the greatest need.

In the most recent CIF round, 2023/24, around 34% of applications were successful. The Department provided feedback to applicants regarding individual unsuccessful projects.

Schools sometimes change their Unique Reference Number (URN) identifier when changing school name, academy status, or moving from one responsible body to another, such as an academy trust. Each URN has been counted as a separate establishment.