Estates Triage

Reactive issues, statutory compliance, ageing buildings, limited capital, and a queue of “must do” jobs that never shrinks.  Estates leads and operational leaders are expected to keep schools safe and open while proving every pound is well spent.  This session gives you a practical way to sort genuine risk from noise, build a prioritised plan you can stand behind, and get SLT, trustees and governors aligned when the right answer is not the popular one.

In this session we explore

• A simple prioritisation framework that balances risk, impact, urgency and value for money

• How to separate emergencies, compliance critical work, and planned maintenance without losing control of the backlog

• Turning site issues into evidence, condition data, statutory logs, incident trends, and lifecycle costings

• Making confident decisions with limited capital, including what to pause, what to phase, and what to stop

• Navigating capital routes (CIF, SCA, local authority, internal reserves), and matching the job to the right pot

• Communicating trade-offs to SLT, trustees and governors, with clear options and consequences

• When to say no, and how to do it without burning relationships or taking on unmanaged risk

Take home points

• Prioritisation matrix you can use tomorrow

• Risk-based language for senior buy-in

• A defensible estates plan structure

• Capital bid readiness checklist

• A clear “say no” script

This session is for

School business leaders, operations leads, estates and facilities managers, trust COOs and CFOs, premises leads, and anyone responsible for estates risk, compliance and capital planning in a school or MAT.

Phil Burton