The National Audit Office report about the condition of England’s schools made for uncomfortable reading, revealing, as it does, the perilous state of many buildings in the school estate.

For example, it notes that 38 per cent of school buildings are believed to be past their initial design life, 700,000 pupils are in schools in need of major repair and 65 school buildings have been identified so far as having been built with lightweight concrete, which is prone to failure.

While it is grim reading, we at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) welcome the report for bringing greater awareness and clarity of the situation that schools face, and making it clear to those responsible for them why timely and ongoing investment is needed.

After all, to help fix issues that exist, and avoid similar situations in the future, it’s important for schools to understand what they can do now, and how. So, what can you do if you want to improve your school building? Where should you start?

Assessing the condition of school buildings

There is always a need to manage, maintain and operate any building as part of an ongoing plan.

Of course, though, with some schools built in the Victorian age and others modern buildings that try to incorporate sustainable building practices, there is no simple approach to school estate maintenance.

The simple but best starting point for any school or trust is a professional survey. This should mean you don’t guess at where the priorities lie but can use expert advice to guide any investments.

An example of this is asbestos, which is hazardous and can have major health implications if exposed. In some circumstances this could be a priority to address, but in others it may take less precedence compared with something like structural concerns.

A loose roof tile can potentially be more hazardous, should it fall and injure someone, or escalate into a leak. This is why it’s important to have buildings assessed by an expert.

Furthermore, consider what you want to know about your building. There are different types of surveying specialisms. Some people are experts in certain building fabrics and construction methods and conditions, and others are focused on operations and use.

A professional will be able to assess a building both individually and holistically, giving guidance on what the priority areas are to address, based on your specific context.

Local authorities may also have estates teams that can help or you could find a surveyor in your area, ideally one with experience of working with schools.

Planning, preparing and prioritising

With any real estate, cost is going to be the biggest challenge. Do you have a viable estate strategy for your school?

If you haven’t already, develop a property plan. A property plan ensures that you have a strategy with the health and wellbeing of users at its heart. As many are aware, health and wellbeing impact upon learning experiences and staff satisfaction.

But what should a good property plan include? Usually a delivery plan for property assets - sometimes also known as an asset management plan-- gives details such as timescales for action, costs (and revenues), outcomes to be achieved and responsibilities for action. The plan should be refreshed annually.

However, these are just some general ideas. A property plan must be tailored to your individual setting, even if you are part of a larger organisation or trust.

And, of course, user experience has to be considered throughout to ensure that the plan offers as positive a learning environment as possible.

To help with this we recently launched a free tool that can allow you to undertake a self-assessment of the effectiveness of current structures and operations that can help to form this plan.

If you’re unsure of what to measure within your plan or are based on a site with a real mix of buildings and construction styles, it is worth speaking to an industry professional.

Once the plan is created it then has to be evaluated against consistently and enacted all-year round, and this is where estate teams or building managers have to ensure that they are able to make the case for investment when there will undoubtedly be other demands being made.

Applying for funding

It’s a tough situation but underinvestment risks potentially catastrophic events in the future that could have been avoided if effective planned preventative maintenance (PPM) had been actioned. Post-incident costs are a lot higher, too, usually.

Given how important funding is to building maintenance, the reality is that you are also going to have to apply for funding support at some point, and a property plan can help with this, too, by making it easier to identify where bids are needed and gather the required evidence.

This can help to bring more strategy to the ongoing maintenance of a school and its estate and ensure that finances are used in a structured way, rather than simply firefighting from one problem to another.

Overall, while the National Audit Office report paints a grim picture and many schools will be at the sharp end of this issue, help is out there and schools and trusts should seek it out whenever they can.

The safety of school buildings is paramount for staff and students, so it’s an area that has to be given due focus by leaders across education.

Paul Bagust is head of property practice at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors