Schools should consider developing an Accommodation Plan covering a period of 5 years, taking account of issues such as:

• National Curriculum requirements
• Falling school roll
• Increase in school roll
• Buildings in poor condition
• Under-occupancy of buildings

This will help schools to plan ahead effectively and both prioritise work and use resources effectively.  The existence of a plan will also assist governors when discussing accommodation proposals with Asset Management, School Advisers and Ofsted as well as when bidding for resources.  It will also help them to meet their premises responsibilities as governors, as the responsible custodian of their premises.

These considerations will also be of particular concern to Asset Management as the LEA strategically monitors and manages accommodation.

Plan Development

Governors should establish roles and responsibilities. For example, decide how much of the plan development is to be carried out by:

• the Head Teacher and Senior Management Team,

• the governing body,
• a premises or special project sub-committee of the governing body
• a working party of school staff and representative governor(s).

It is suggested that governors should follow the same process as for the Asset Management Plan, adopting five stages:

Assess existing premises

1. Identify needs

2. Determine priorities
3. Feasibility study and option appraisal
4. Implementation, review and evaluation

1. Assess existing premises

This is the basis of any plan and should assist in providing informed judgement as to the most important priorities in your programme of improvements.  This should provide a school profile and will identify key information such as:

• Current and projected pupils by age

• Assessed capacity and Standard Number of the school (Sufficiency analysis)
• Accommodation breakdown including inappropriate rooms, shortfall and surplus (Suitability analysis)
• State of repair (Condition analysis)
• Maintenance costs
• Income generation potential of any surplus accommodation

It is usually helpful to have scale drawings available of the existing premises.

Most of this information is available from your school Asset Management Plan. It should also be necessary to refer to other design guides, most of which are generated by the DfES, and Building Bulletin 82 Area Guidelines for Schools.

2. Identify needs / objectives

This will need to take into account a broad range of LEA policies and guidance, DfES guidelines and statutory orders and other guidance such as recent Ofsted inspection.

The objectives should be clearly defined and should be 'balanced', that is not so narrow as to prevent objectives being amended or modified but not so broad that they involve excessive work. Areas in which objectives might be set include:

• Responding to changes in pupil numbers

• Achieving fitness for purpose of the accommodation
• Improving the overall quality of accommodation
• Improving a key curriculum area
• Seeking specialist college status

3. Determine priorities

It is likely that you will have a significant number of objectives identified. It is unlikely that you will have sufficient time to consider them all now and therefore you should establish a priority order in which they should be considered. Obviously, you must pay particular attention to those areas of concern from Ofsted inspection or School Advisers.

4. Feasibility study and option appraisal

You should generate a number of options which meet the objectives of your review which should be costed prior to evaluation including advantages and disadvantages of each proposal. This may involve your appointment of a Consultant to assist with any design work or advise about any statutory issues such as planning or building regulations. Costs should be very approximate and should, for instance, include 'hidden' costs such as the cost of maintaining a building both when considering retaining surplus accommodation or extending buildings instead of remodelling existing. This will probably include information such as:

• Assessment of the buildings or improvements needed to implement option

• Relevance of proposals to the school Asset Management Plan
• Cost of building work
• Running costs over time
• Forecast demographic need
• Educational benefits and disbenefits
• Significant costs and benefits to other users such as Community Groups

It is important to consult with as many people as possible in this appraisal including non-school bodies such as your School Adviser.

These proposals should be incorporated into your school premises plans to produce an overall site development plan so that the future impact of other potential schemes is clear. There is little point in building or altering accommodation, which has to be altered again.

5. Implementation, review and evaluation

When a preferred option has been established, you should firstly seek approval to the proposal from:

• The full governing body

• The LEA (via Asset Management)
• The Diocesan body or Trustees in case of Voluntary Aided schools

Implementation

Reference should also be made to the Scheme Development and Scheme Implementation pages.

Implementation of your project will involve:

• Securing of appropriate approvals

• Preparation of detailed proposals including plans where appropriate
• A detailed specification
• Invitations to tender and, for Voluntary Aided schools, approval may be required from DfES.
• Standing Orders and financial regulations must be complied with.
• Tender acceptance should be formal, specify the contract period and involve entering into a contract.
• Supervision of works on site including compliance with all statutory legislation
• Payment of contractors
• Final acceptance of completed work

It is recommended that, for all schemes other than the most simple and straightforward, an appropriately qualified consultant should be employed to manage this process.

Review and Evaluation

Upon completion of the scheme, you should undertake a formal review and consider issues such as:

• Were the original scheme objectives met

• Was the scheme delivered to time and cost
• Contractors performance
• What things worked well
• What things didn't
• What was the impact of the building works on school pupils and staff
• Educational benefit is important. For instance, if a particular curriculum area was targeted, monitor the impact on curriculum delivery, staff motivation and pupil performance.