Condition Improvement Fund Opens for 2022-23

Capital funding is available for academies, sixth-form colleges and voluntary aided (VA) schools in England to transform facilities, improve school buildings and create more good school places.

The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) is provided by the Department for Education. Funding is intended to improve school buildings and expand academies and sixth-form colleges rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.

CIF’s core priority is to support condition projects and the focus of the fund is to keep school and college buildings safe and in good working order. Most CIF funding aims to address building issues with significant consequences that revenue or Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) funding cannot meet. These include issues with poor building condition, building compliance, energy efficiency or health and safety.

The highest priority will be given to condition projects that address compliance and health and safety issues. These include fire protection systems, gas safety, electrical safety or emergency asbestos removal. Priority will then be given to projects that ensure weather tight buildings and continuous heating and water supply. CIF also supports a small proportion of expansion projects where Ofsted has rated the school either good or outstanding and which need to expand their existing facilities and/or floor space to either:

Increase the number of admissions in the main year of entry, or
Address overcrowding, including cases of recently approved age-range expansion and sixth form expansion.

To be eligible to apply for CIF funding, applicants must have been by 1 September 2021 either a:

Stand-alone academy
School in a multi-academy trust (MAT) with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils as counted in the Spring 2021 census or 2020/21 Individualised Learner Record (ILR)
Voluntary Aided (VA) school in a VA body or VA group with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils as counted in the Spring 2021 census or 2020/21 ILR
Sixth-form college
School with a signed academy order as of 1 September 2021 that the department expects will convert by 1 April 2022.

Applicants can submit up to two projects per academy or college, only one of which may be an expansion project.

Applications from free schools must confirm that the CIF project did not form part of the original free school project.

An initial proposal can be submitted for works expected to cost more than £20,000 (for primary and special schools) and £50,000 (for Secondary, allthrough and sixthform colleges) for initial approval prior to further development and final approval at a later stage. The maximum project cost for all schools is £4 million.

In addition to grants, CIF Loans are available to applicants for all of part of the project costs.

Applications must be submitted by the deadline of 16 December 2021.

Full details…