The Education Policy Institute partnered with IRIS Education to hold a private roundtable on: ‘Exploring the readiness of the school estate – are schools and MATs prepared for the Education Estates Strategy?’
Earlier this year, the Department for Education published the Education Estates Strategy, alongside the schools white paper, outlining an ambition to renew school and college buildings across England and ensure they are fit for purpose. Backed by £38 billion in capital investment between 2025-26 and 2029‑30 – including both the renewal and retrofit of schools as well as full rebuilding programmes – the strategy aims to ensure the education estate is inclusive, safe, suitable, sustainable and sufficiently sized.
A recent National Audit Office (NAO) report demonstrates the scale of the strain on the system: 700,000 pupils are currently learning in buildings that require major rebuilding or refurbishment. Beyond raising explicit safety concerns, school buildings in poor condition can negatively impact attainment, as well as wellbeing and engagement. The NAO report highlights that understanding the estate is a central concern, given the lack of comprehensive, reliable information about it.
Against this context, EPI and IRIS Education have undertaken a fresh analysis that provides new evidence on the readiness of the school estate for these upcoming policy changes. Using the data from IRIS Education’s Every Compliance platform, the research explores estate management practices across the English education sector – ultimately to provide useful guidance for policymakers, multi-academy trusts and schools as they prepare for these significant reforms.
This roundtable brought together policymakers, trust leaders and sector representatives to explore the findings and their implications for the Education Estates Strategy. The insights from this roundtable will shortly be published in a summary paper, weaving in the analysis undertaken in advance.
Partner with us
This roundtable was an invitation-only event as part of the Education Policy Institute’s partnership programme. To discuss running a private roundtable with EPI, please contact Tim Archer (tim.archer@epi.org.uk) or Adam Richards-Gray (adam.richards-gray@epi.org.uk) – or you can find out more about wider partnership opportunities here
