Government allocates £400M to improve schools and colleges

The Department for Education has announced the provision of £400M to schools and colleges across Britain for the express purpose of upgrading and constructing buildings and facilities.

This latest round of the Condition Improvement Fund will be available to academies and sixth form colleges for the express purpose of expanding classrooms, upgrading facilities such as sports halls and science labs, as well as addressing issues relating to the general wear-and-tear of school buildings.

Bidding for amounts of this funding will be subject to the results of a points based assessment, which will now take into account the pay of staff at the institutions that are placing said bids, meaning that if they pay two or more salaries in excess of £100,000 or one salary over £150,000 institutions could receive four point deductions.

Adding to this, further conditions have been added to the points based assessment for bidding such as the awarding of an extra point for applicants that have signed-up to the most recent government funding agreement, deductions up to four points if applicants have not submitted a financial improvement plan, and close examination of successful projects worth more than £1M.

The Education Secretary Gavin Williamson stated: “This government is determined to give all children the best possible education, but as well as great teachers, we want all pupils to learn in classrooms that enable them to gain the knowledge and skills they need for success.

“Following our huge investment in school funding with an increase of a total of £14Bn over three years, this year’s multi-million-pound fund will support our pledge to create more good school places and continue raising standards.”

This latest addition to school funding follows the Prime Minister’s pledge to increase school improvement funding by a figure of £14Bn over the course of the next three years.

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