Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of school condition funding.

The Department has allocated over £15 billion since 2015 for keeping schools safe and operational, including £1.8 billion committed for the 2023/24 financial year. School Condition Allocations (SCAs) are allocated annually to Local Authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary aided school groups to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of their schools, whilst the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) is a bid-based fund for essential condition projects at small and stand-alone academy trusts, voluntary aided schools and sixth-form colleges. £1.1 billion has been announced in school condition allocations for 2023/24, and over £450 million for the CIF, which will fund projects at 859 schools and sixth-form colleges. In 2022/23, the Department announced an additional £500 million in funding to improve buildings at schools and colleges, prioritising energy efficiency.

In addition, the School Rebuilding Programme will transform buildings in poor condition at 500 schools, prioritising poor condition and evidence of potential safety issues. New buildings are already being delivered across the country with modern designs that are net zero carbon in operation.

SCAs take into account consistent data from the Condition Data Collection (CDC1) to ensure funding is weighted to reflect the relative condition of school buildings. It is up to responsible bodies to decide how to prioritise SCAs to address specific condition issues in their schools, based on local knowledge. Applications to the CIF are robustly assessed against the published criteria, prioritising need.

The Department provides extensive guidance for responsible bodies to help them make effective spending decisions and manage their estates strategically and effectively through resources such as the Good Estate Management for Schools guidance.

The impact of school condition funding is reviewed on an ongoing basis, in order to inform decisions about future funding. In particular, the second Condition Data Collection, CDC2, will allow the Department to look at the impact of funding policy and programmes since CDC1, both at a national and local level. Early indications from schools that have received their CDC2 report show that core building elements with the lowest condition grade have been addressed in the overwhelming majority of cases.