Trustees play a critical role in the safe running of our schools and raising standards.
Although different types of Trust will have different governance arrangements, all governance boards have the same core functions:
These principles apply across all functions, whether it is teaching or operations, but when viewed through the lens of estates management we can identify some key areas where trustees can have the most positive impact.
It is important to say that these observations are not confined to those sitting on finance or premises boards. It is useful for all Trustees to have an appreciation of the fundamentals of estate management in order to understand the impact of key decisions across the whole organisation and ask the right questions.
No, not those! Roles, responsibilities and resource. In governance terms, and in line with other functions, the clear assignment of roles and responsibilities is critical to effective estates management as this drives action, efficiency and communication.
The type of activities performed and level of involvement from Trustees will vary from Trust to Trust. It will depend on the needs of the portfolio as well as the skills and experience of those available, both on the Trust Board and within the schools’ and Trust’s operations team.
However, rather than getting too involved in day-to-day operations, Trustees should always maintain a strategic overview. This means ensuring that the Trust and individual schools have the appropriate resources, particularly personnel, in place to effectively deliver the objectives that have been set.
Hopefully your Trust will have a clear vision which sets out the long term aims of the Trust. Inevitably this means identifying areas most in need of development and prioritising activities to achieve these objectives.
It is part of the role of Trustees to ensure that this overall vision filters down to the operational functions of the organisation and that the priorities of the Trust estates management team are aligned to this vision.
For example, if the Trust’s education vision aspires to increase places or develop a specialisation within the curriculum, it is vital that all parts of the organisation are aware of this and what is required to deliver it.
The ultimate aim of the estates function is to provide the optimum environment for teaching and learning. The much-quoted objective of creating safe, dry and warm buildings is often quoted but the reality and aspiration should go much further than this.
Putting in place the long-term strategy is vital but most of the estates team’s time will be spent on day-to-day Asset Management planning. There are several key areas that Trustees should focus on. These are also set out in the DfE’s own Good Estate Management for Schools guidance:
Data: Having correct, current and consistent data on the school estate enables Trustees to identify need, prioritise action and accurately assess performance and outcomes. Whether this is data on the condition of buildings, their suitability, sufficiency or energy use, it is the Trustees role to identify and communicate what information they need in order to make evidence-based decisions.
Emergency planning: The unprecedented events of the last two years have focused attention on how external factors can affect school operations. They have also shown how resilient and creative we can be when faced with adversity. Having a disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan is a fundamental of good estates management. These plans should be developed based on an assessment of risk and should be completed both at individual site level but also as a Trust and in collaboration with all relevant parties.
Budget & Funding: Setting and monitoring budgets is critical as part of overall financial management but Trustees should also be ensuring that the organisation is maximising all available sources of external funding and revenue generation. This could be through grant funding applications, commercial operations such as lettings or saving money through energy efficiency programmes.
Procurement and Value for Money: Spending on the estate is typically the largest operating expense after staff costs so Trustees must ensure that they are spending wisely on the estate. In practice this means making sure there are robust processes for planning and prioritising capital works, looking for opportunities to deliver economies of scale, taking a long-term view on whole life costs vs cheapest price and ensuring the Trust has a compliant and effective procurement policy.
Trustees have wide-ranging and diverse responsibilities. They cannot be expected to be subject matter experts in all areas. However, there are some common characteristics that effective governors and Trustees share;
Ultimately, the role of Trustees is to ask the right questions and ensure the estates team is adequately resourced to provide the answers and deliver the trust vision.
There is more information available, including self-assessment checklists, on the Department for Education Website: Good Estate Management for Schools.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
Robert is the Seminar Leader of CST's Estates Management Explained for Trustees.
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