Condition Improvement Fund – How to Make Your Case

CIF bids are an important route to capital funding for smaller MATS and SATs but with diminishing funds available and only 1-in-3 bids being successful; how can you ensure that yours is as strong as possible? In this article, Clare Skinner gives advice on how to make your case

Over my career of 11 years in education, I have managed to get my first school fully double glazed and completely re-roofed, and expanded my current school, replace two-thirds of failing roofs, upgraded end of life main switch gear equipment and replaced a failing modular building. I’ve also missed out, so here are the things that I have learned along the way to give my bids the best chance of success!

Read the Guidance

Yes, it is that obvious, but it is really helpful! It clearly states what projects are likely to be the most successful, talks you through the application process, timescales and the scoring criteria so that you know which potential projects to submit.

Get Some Support

I couldn’t have done any of my projects without my fantastic property consultants who have supported my applications and then gone on to project manage the successful bids. They really know their stuff, certainly more than I do when it comes to elements like Principal Designers and CDM contracts! What they also know, after years of working together, is what my school is like; the challenges that need to be addressed and in what order they need to be addressed. Many consultants will carry out all the up-front work in preparing the bid at their own risk and no cost to the school. This is because they want to work on projects that they believe have a good chance of being successful. This is one of the best pieces of value you could get in your role!

Have Your GEMS in Place

You need to have completed your GEMS checklist; it is referred to in the application guidance and you should have everything GEMS related behind that to be able to support your bid and make effective decisions on what to bid for. Your strategic estates plan will identify your priorities and summarise your key issues from condition surveys, fire risk assessments, capacity surveys, environmental audits, H&S audits etc.

Evidence, Evidence, Evidence

You will need to provide evidence to support your bid and whilst your consultants can provide the sexy stuff such as heat maps showing thermal loss on roofs or water penetration charts for damp buildings you will need to have data too. This comes from the surveys and specialist audit mentioned before regarding GEMS and it is key to have corresponding recommendations from multiple sources. The ESFA look for independent opinions on your bid but is fundamentally needing to understand where it has significant impacts on the operation of the school i.e. classroom, canteen closures.

Then you need to look at information you have such as your maintenance log/issue records. Filter by the area being bid for and get every single ticket that has been raised about that issue summarised and put into the bid to demonstrate the impact it has on the day-to-day operation of the school. Think about having a running expenditure balance on how much you have spent on maintaining the area of work that you are bidding for, this can show that maintenance is no longer sustainable, and replacement needs to be considered. Do you have complaints/concerns/negative feedback from stakeholders about what you are bidding for, could you include this in your bid if it is in writing? Is the condition causing staff absence, can you include that (anonymised of course!) data to show a leaky roof is causing damp and creating respiratory linked illness and thus impacting the operation negatively?

Commitment to the Cause

Don’t think that you can put in an awesome bid but not front up any cash from your own reserves. The more you can show your commitment to the bid through a significant proportion of the project costs, the more points you get. If you really can’t afford a contribution, then you will need to clearly demonstrate why not during your application. If you don’t have the reserves, seriously consider a loan that is then deducted from your monthly GAG statement, the rates are cheap, and you can budget around a fixed repayment over a term of up to ten years.

So, get ready, you need to be able to submit at the beginning of December – check the guidance for exact deadline. By the way, if this information helps you to get your bid but means that I don’t get mine; then you owe me a coffee!