How to unlock government grants for academies, schools, and MATs

Every year the Department for Education (DfE) allocates funding to help eligible schools maintain and improve their buildings. These include, but are not limited to, the below funding opportunities which eligible schools can apply for in each financial year:

• School Condition Allocations (SCA) which provides funds for maintaining school buildings.
• Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) which is open to academies and Multiple-Academy Trusts (MATs), and sixth-form colleges.
• Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) which provides direct funding for educational bodies to maintain buildings and fund small projects.

How can government funding be used for estates?

The main priority of these funds is to improve the condition of educational buildings,  particularly focused on energy efficiency, addressing health and safety concerns and helping buildings become more compliant to regulations.

Who is eligible for school condition funding?

In order to be eligible to receive funding from government grants in education, the criteria includes the following:

• Academies and large Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs)
• Local authorities and local-authority maintained schools
• Sixth-form colleges
• Post-16 institutions

If you’re unsure about whether you meet the criteria for the funding please get in touch with us or check the Government website here.

How to select the best school condition funding option?

Schools can either be eligible to apply for School Condition Allocation funding (SCA) or the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF). The best suited funding option depends on which type of school it may be, and its size.

If eligible for CIF, schools can provide bids for the 2024-2025 financial year. If bidding for this, then they will be unable to receive SCA funding. Therefore, we recommend carefully considering your eligibility criteria before considering entering a bidding process. In some cases, it may be easier to receive support from a third party who can manage your bidding process for funding from start to finish, which is where our team of experts at Eddisons Education can provide their expertise, and recommend the best route for your school. 

How to maximise funding from grants

In order to ensure that funding opportunities are maximised, ensure that you have following steps planned: 

• Understand the unique needs of your estate.
• Using this knowledge, or a third-party resource, apply for relevant grant funding.
• Use this funding to make improvements to your estate.
• Form a budget plan on how you will spend the funding.
• Use the right partners to achieve your goals.

If you are interested in funding options which are available to improve the condition of your education buildings, and would like to learn more about grant opportunities, get in touch with one of our RICS-qualified chartered surveyors today.