The development of an annual maintenance programme should not rely solely on utilising the school AMP data on condition. You will need to have inspection systems in place with responsibilities for identifying, reporting and actioning issues raised. This should normally be formally recorded and is in addition to the surveys carried out to inform AMP condition records.

Identifying

Identifying areas for maintenance will require some form of inspection:

• be proactive not reactive,
• consider health and safety implications.

Whilst some of this work may be implemented by others (e.g. electrical test certificates may be secured using the Urban Design 3 Star service) it is important that schools have a comprehensive checklist available. A schedule is provided in Statutory Testing.

Reporting

Be methodical:

• regularly check all rooms, corridors, stores, toilets so that defects do not remain undetected.
• record the date of inspection and defects identified (including nil defects) which should incorporate ad-hoc reporting by pupils, staff and others.

Actioning

Be clear whose responsibility it is:

• to action faults identified and
• to commission any resulting works.

The division of responsibilities schedule is given in Responsibilities for Repair and Maintenance.

Developing a maintenance programme for your school

It is important to plan your school's maintenance programme in order to ensure that you are able to meet your responsibilities for both planned and emergency maintenance. As a general guide, the following process should be followed:

• Identifying works - use AMP data, inspection routines, schedule of statutory testing; decide responsibility (LEA or School).
  
  
• Prioritise works - establish the relative priority of works (e.g. statutory requirement/curriculum impact/consequence of non-repair).
  
  
• Cost - establish the cost of repair.
  
  
• Access available resources - confirm school budget available (preferably differentiate that generated under Local Management of Schools and Fair Funding); level of Devolved Capital; identify other school resources available (e.g. reallocate from within school budget, PTA, local charities; other Funding – see our section on Policy Bids and Funding).
  
  
• Establish an annual programme - list the projects in order of priority together with estimated cost and any other factors such as periods of unavailability such as for exams or when school BSS is not available.
  
  
• Monitor implementation - order and supervise work, monitor progress, record cost variation and manage by adding to or deleting from the programme.
  
  
• Review - review individual scheme outcome (e.g. on time, on budget, impact upon school, consultant and contractor performance).
  
  
• Grounds Maintenance - support for schools is available from the Leisure & Culture Services Parks and Nature Conservation Division, which includes gardening grass cutting and trees. There is a centrally held LEA budget for works to trees that has previously been administered by the old Education Sites Section, now been transferred to the Leisure and Culture department. For details of available support please visit the Horticultural Grounds Maintenance page at the Birmingham.gov.uk site.

Schools will also need to consider the improvement and development of accommodation. This should be undertaken through an Accommodation Development Plan covering a period of 5 years.