The recent DfE report on school buildings made for interesting, yet disturbing reading. It found that half of school trusts are not compliant with current building surveys and do not regularly access DfE guidance designed to help.
Further information revealed that 80 percent of trusts have insufficient information around the condition of their building. But why is this the case? Are SBMs overworked? Are budgets too tight to fit in all expectations? Or are there so many complex rules to abide by that you don’t have time to do everything, despite your best intentions?
Managing a school or trust estate can be complex and time-consuming. With constant demands on budgets and resources, keeping on top of maintenance, repairs, compliance, and sustainability initiatives is a continual challenge.
But what if there was a simpler way to improve your school estate? iAM Compliant is here to help. What you need is a strategic approach and to utilise the right tools. We’ve got a superb Good Estates Management for Schools (GEMs) tool for you – and putting it in place within your school or trust can keep all those on your estate safe, warm, compliant, and operationally effective.
You’ll save money, too. By understanding your estate, you can reduce running costs, spread your budget efficiently, schedule repairs and plan. If the school is safer, you reduce the risk of accidents and potential liabilities.
How can our Good Estates Management for Schools tool help you?
Using existing data from your iAM account, the tool brings together everything you need into one place – you can check the status and condition of your estate immediately, regardless of how many buildings or rooms are in it. Drill down into sites to specify the types and usage of each space. Having this information readily available is clearly beneficial – you can manage your buildings’ condition and assets to prioritise problem areas and allocate appropriate budgets, as well as keep track of your energy usage.
The GEMs tool will help you save precious time and resources – you won’t need to waste time searching through folders or trying to interpret spreadsheets; all the information you need is in one easy-to-access place, freeing you up for more important things.
You’ll be able to create building condition reports to easily compare the state of individual spaces and see what assets need to be fixed urgently. Knowing what needs to be refreshed or repaired allows you to choose the most appropriate method of repair and allocate the funding needed to complete the task.
Of course, while you are trying to reach Net Zero, the GEMs tool is indispensable. It shows energy usage trends so you can see where energy is being spent and wasted. Knowing this helps you become savvier about how you use energy and plan around sustainability.
Simplifying your estate management
Even with a robust strategy, day-to-day management can be demanding. Tracking compliance, contracts, risk assessments, maintenance schedules, and a multitude of other tasks is time-consuming and can be confusing without an effective management system.
This is where utilising a purpose-built solution can transform how you oversee your estate. iAM Compliant offers an integrated suite of tools encompassing all elements of compliance and facilities management in one easy-to-use place.
Aside from our useful estates management tool, key features of iAM Compliant include:
Asset Management
Log, audit and manage critical assets from one dashboard, anywhere at any time.
Contracts
Store supplier details and track contract renewals and obligations.
Premises
Schedule and record statutory compliance checks and maintenance.
Policy Compliance
Create, track, and ensure staff read the latest DfE statutory requirements policies
Document Management
Upload and store policies securely with e-signature tracking.
Risk Assessments
Record and monitor risk assessments and track them with a real-time risk matrix.
Incident Reporting
Log accidents, observations and near misses accurately, digitally.
Helpdesk
Centrally manage and allocate staff service requests.
Audits
Conduct, circulate and analyse site audits and DSE assessments digitally.
Staff CPD Training
Assign and track online compliance training. Our learning library contains 300+ bite-sized IOSH-approved and CPD-certified courses to upskill your team rapidly.
Contractors Portal
Manage external suppliers and works in a streamlined way
Insights Reporting
Instant overview of estate compliance at a glance with actionable insights.
Sustainability Tool
Our sustainability tool aggregates relevant news, tracks energy usage and waste to help you reach net zero on target.
We’re winners of the prestigious Management & Leadership Solution BETT Award 2023, and Education Estates Supplier of the Year Award 2023 – both highly respected accolades, and a testament to the quality of our compliance, premises and safety management system.
iAM Compliant is designed by experts to deliver compliant, safe and efficiently run educational facilities. By streamlining management into one integrated solution, you save time, money, and gain transparency across all estate compliance and management.
To give you an extra helping hand with your school or Trust estate, our CEO, Luke Pargeter, has created a FREE step-by-step guide to help you maintain your school or Trust estate, exploring the links between building conditions and pupil attainment. Discover simple, low-cost enhancements that can make a huge difference!
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