At PCH Associates Limited we have seen schools face significant challenges over the past decade and the estates strategy is one contributing component. We believe a good estates strategy should reflect the following for every school:
- Sufficiency of the school and any suitability issues.
- Condition of the school.
- Statutory compliance issues/concerns.
- A sensible decarbonisation strategy.
To develop this, a school needs to co-ordinate LA and DfE data as well as numerous external specialists and this can prove a timely, expensive and confusing exercise.
We believe there are cost effective ways to produce an estates strategy which:
- Takes a holistic approach.
- Helps reduce premises risks.
- Supports capital planning.
- Addresses governance requirements.
- Supports external grant nominations such as SRP, PSDS, or CIF.
Having a robust estates strategy in place helps facilitate early decision making around priority capital projects. This is essential as the construction industry also faces its own challenges and late instructions will increase procurement, compliance and project delivery risks.
As a practice, we understand the challenges the Education sector is facing and we are always happy to discuss these with any organisation that needs assistance.
PCH Associates
