Jenny Fram comments on the uptake of CIF and if schools can increase their success rate

After the government released its latest data on Condition Improvement Funding (CIF) applications, Schools Week asked Jenny Fram, Director at BTG, to give her thoughts on success rates and what schools have been making applications for.

Schools Week asked about the disparity between North East and London application acceptances. Only 1% of available funding went to schools in the North East with the Department for Education (DfE) highlighting that, “more detailed incident reports and maintenance records citing class interruptions and the possibility of school closure…could have been included to strengthen the case for urgency.”

Jenny Fram, Director at BTG, said:

“Some regions outperforming others is a trend we see each year, but the tendency for the North East to be a poor relation is concerning as this is not the first year it’s happened. 

“If figures were published on all applications regardless of success this would give a broader picture and help tell the full story of success and failure, and how applications can be improved. Our own success rate is high, but how can others learn from that?”

The article also noted that BTG analysis of CIF applications found 32% of successful projects were to improve fire safety, compared with 17% of heating and 14% roofing.

Jenny continued:

“The data tells us that safety is by far the most likely to win funding at the moment. There is a massive focus on this which has only increased over recent years with the ‘safe’ aspect of the ‘warm, dry, safe’ criteria coming to the fore. 

“Whilst roofs in poor repair mean rainwater ingress and poor teaching conditions, mostly they are not unsafe. No one wants to turn down a CIF bid which may result in loss of life.”

Looking ahead, DfE has announced plans to launch a replacement programme for CIF by autumn 2028.

To explain the change the article quotes the DfE, outlining that this new system will be, “enabled by data transformation with more granular and timely data on the estate. [Trusts and councils will collect] their own data in line with common standards and sharing data with the department.”

Read the full article here.