Accommodation

Building Development Plan

Schools should consider developing a Building Development Plan to include the following issues:

National Curriculum requirements
Falling School roll
Increase in School roll
Poor condition of buildings
Buildings under-occupied

The presence of a Building Development Plan will:

help schools plan ahead effectively
allow for prioritisation of work and use of resources
assist Governors when discussing accommodation proposals with Property & Asset Management, School Advisers and Ofsted
assist with bidding for resources
help to meet premises responsibilities as governors
assist the LEA to strategically monitor and manage accommodation

Plan Development

Governors should establish roles and responsibilities. For example, a decision should be made as to how much of the plan development is carried out by:

the governing body
the Head Teacher and Senior Management Team
a working party of school staff and representative governor(s)
a premises or special project sub-committee of the governing body.

Governors should adopt the following five stages in a similar process to the Asset Management Plan:

1. Assess existing premises

Forms the basis of any plan and indicates the most important priorities. This should identify key information such as current/projected pupils by age, Sufficiency analysis (assessed capacity), Condition analysis (state of repair), maintenance costs and income generation potential of any surplus accommodation. The majority of this information is available in a schools Asset Management Plan.

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2. Identify needs

This will need to take into account LEA policies/guidance, DCSF guidelines/statutory orders and other guidance e.g. recent Ofsted inspection.

Objectives should be defined clearly and allow for modification without being too broad. Objectives might be set in the following areas:

Responding to changes in pupil numbers
Achieving fitness for purpose of the accommodation
Improving overall quality of accommodation
Improving a key curriculum area
Seeking specialist college status

3. Determine Priorities

A priority order should be applied to the objectives identified as there is unlikely to be sufficient time to consider them all. The areas highlighted by Ofsted inspection and School Advisers should be looked at firstly.

4. Feasability study and option appraisal

On setting objectives you should be able to generate a number of options which need to be costed prior to evaluation – including advantages and disadvantages. A Consultant can be appointed to assist with any design work or provide advice on statutory issues (i.e. planning, building regulations). The costs should be approximate but include the maintenance of a building. An example of the type of information to include is listed below:

Assessment of the buildings or improvements needed to implement option
Relevance of proposals to the school Asset Management Plan
Cost of building work
Running costs over time
Forecast demographic need
Educational benefits and disbenefits
Significant costs and benefits to other users such as Community Groups

When carrying out the appraisal, it is important to consult with as many people as possible - including non-school bodies such as the School Adviser.

Proposals should be incorporated into the school premises plan in order to create an overall site development plan so that any impact from future schemes will be clear.

5. Implementation, review and evaluation

On deciding a preferred option, approval should be sought firstly from the full governing body, the LEA (via Property & Asset Management) and the Diocesan body of Trustees (if a Voluntary Aided school).

Implementation of a project will involve:

Obtaining appropriate approvals
Proposals prepared in detail with plans
A detailed specification
Invitations to tender and, for Voluntary Aided schools, approval may be required from DCSF
Standing Orders and financial regulations must be complied with
Tender acceptance should be formal, specify contract period and involve entering into a contract
Supervision of works on site including compliance with all statutory legislation
Payment of contractors
Final acceptance of completed work

For all schemes, other than the most simple and straightforward, an appropriately qualified consultant should be employed to manage the process.

On completing the scheme, a formal review should be undertaken and the following issues should be considered:

Were the original scheme objectives met?
Was the scheme delivered to time and cost?
Performance of Contractor?
What worked well and what didn't?
Did the building work impact on school pupils and staff?
Educational benefit - monitor impact on curriculum delivery if this was a targeted area?