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England has more than 22,000 schools and colleges, serving around 10 million learners. Many of these buildings are aging, maintenance backlogs have increased, and funding has too often been reactive rather than planned. The Department of Education’s Education Strategy, published in February 2026, sets out a 10-year plan to change this.

If you missed our webinar, Your estate, your evidence: navigating the DfE’s new expectationsyou can watch it now.

Here’s what estate managers, facilities managers and school business leaders need to know, based on the questions participants actually asked.

This is a long-term project built around three pillars: managing the estate, improving and renewing it, and rebuilding it if necessary. Together, they aim to give schools clearer expectations, better allocated funding and a greater role for data in decision-making.

The scale of investment behind this is significant. The DfE has committed around £38 billion of capital investment over the life of the strategy, including a £20 billion school rebuilding program covering around 750 schools and a commitment to remove autoclaved reinforced aerated concrete (RAAC) from all schools by 2029.

Fall 2026 is the date to have on your calendar. This is when schools make their first estate return to the DfE via the new Manage Education Estate digital service, accessible via GOV.UK. This first report is expected to focus on assessment and benchmarking rather than submitting comprehensive data, but it marks the start of a shift that will continue through 2027 and 2028.

By 2028, two-way data sharing between schools and the DfE will become operational. And in fall 2028, the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) closes and is replaced by a new evidence-based funding model.

This is the change with the greatest practical impact. The CIF currently makes around £450m a year available, but it is competitive: pass rates are around 35% and schools can spend weeks preparing an offer with no guarantee of return.

From autumn 2028, this model disappears. Instead of submitting a bid, schools will provide evidence, drawn from state data, succession records and consistent reporting, aligned with the DfE’s Succession Management Standards. The schools best positioned to secure future capital investments will not be the ones writing the best offer. These will be those who have the best data.

Meanwhile, the DfE has committed almost £3 billion a year to maintenance by 2034-35, with around £710 million specifically earmarked for refurbishment and refurbishment projects.

Because the DfE does not currently have the full picture, and they know it. Current estimates put the national maintenance backlog at around £13.8 billion, but this figure is based on incomplete information. The entire strategy is designed to close this gap: consistent data standards, digital reporting, sector-wide benchmarking and two-way sharing between schools and government.

For your school or trust, this means that organizations that establish a clear and structured view of their assets now, rather than waiting for a deadline, will have a head start when funding and reporting requirements tighten.

Four things, depending on what the strategy requires:

Create a single, comprehensive view of your domain

Buildings, assets, compliance activities, condition surveys and maintenance records should be in one place, not scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes and site files.

Make compliance continuous, not seasonal

Legal checks, accessible evidence and consistent reporting should not be an issue before an inspection or return deadline.

Prepare to finance your data

Status information, investment priorities and evidence of investment planning will carry more weight than a well-written bid once the CIF is completed.

Assign clear ownership

Data entry, compliance monitoring and evidence collection require a named owner or quality records where it matters most.

The DfE framework emphasizes trust-wide domain dashboards, real-time visibility of compliance status, standardized condition records and audit-ready reports that do not require weeks of preparation. Centralized legal controls and clearly assigned responsibilities lie behind it all.

Kings Norton Girls’ School turned to IRIS Education to bring together their succession and compliance information in one place, using Every Compliance by IRIS to do so. With structured, audit-ready files already in hand, the school could clearly demonstrate compliance and present accurate, up-to-date evidence of the state of its assets without having to scramble at the last minute.

This groundwork helped support a successful CIF application, securing funding of around £700,000. This is a snapshot of what the evidence-based funding model will expect from every school after 2028, not the exception.

• Can you see the status of every site in one place today?
• Is your proof of legal compliance continually stored and accessible?
• Do you maintain state data in a standard, comparable format?
• Do you systematically comply with estate management standards in all schools under your responsibility?
• Will you understand your estate better than the DfE, after this first return?

If any of this has given you pause, you’re not alone and you still have time to close the gap before fall 2026.

The shift from reactive maintenance and tendering to evidence-based funding will happen over the next 18 months, not overnight, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Each Compliance by IRIS, an IRIS Education product, brings together your succession and compliance data in one place, so you have evidence ready well before the first return in fall 2026.

Book a demo today or contact us to discuss the current state of your estate data.