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BUILDING OUR FUTURE: Scotland's School Estate
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
WHY THE SCHOOL ESTATE MATTERS
1. Education is a key priority for the Scottish Executive. The National Priorities 1 in Education were designed to ensure that every young person has the chance to meet their full potential and that the gap for those not sharing the general level of attainment and well-being is closed. Local authorities - who, through COSLA, have jointly developed this strategy with the Scottish Executive, parents, teachers and others with an interest in education - share the view that every young person should have the best possible start in life.
2. The school environment is central to this. We want to create schools which support learning and teaching, and which are an integral part of the community - both for today and for coming decades. We need to develop a school estate with a built-in capacity for flexibility so that we can respond effectively to the challenges of tomorrow.
WHY A SCHOOL ESTATE STRATEGY?
3. We want a school estate that helps every school be a centre of excellence. This extends to the built environment, as well as learning and teaching. It means not just more investment, but smarter investment.
4. Our vision is for:
well designed, well built and well managed schools that:
> support national and local priorities;
> inspire children, young people and communities.
a future school estate that:
> meets our aspirations;
> responds to evolving needs;
> is effectively managed and maintained over the long term.
5. Smart investment requires careful planning and forethought. Hence the need for a school estate strategy. There can be no single blueprint: the right solution for each school must reflect the particular needs and aspirations of its pupils, staff, parents and communities. To work we believe that the strategy should be implemented through the following principles, within a broad framework of joined up objectives and community planning:
- with a clear focus on objectives;
- through partnership to deliver better services;
- by matching resources to priorities.
6. This strategy is for the long term. It will take commitment and resources to make the changes that we want. Implementation of the strategy - leading to a well designed, well built and well managed school environment - is likely to take at least 10-15 years. The challenge beyond that will be to maintain a school estate that continues to meet future needs. The success of this strategy cannot simply be measured by development of plans over the coming months, or even by new and refurbished schools over several years: its success will be demonstrated over coming decades by a school estate that meets our vision and continues to support pupils and communities and their evolving needs.
OUR STARTING POINT
7. The school estate is diverse and its profile varies within and across local authorities. The schools vary in age, type and condition. Some of them operate beyond desirable occupancy while others are underused. Some simply do not support today's learning and teaching environment.
8. Local authorities have statutory responsibility for all aspects of school provision, building and maintenance. Over the years, local authorities have accorded priority to capital spending on educational assets and, in what have been, on occasion, demanding financial circumstances, achieved much to create positive learning and teaching environments, although the maintenance of the stock has sometimes suffered.
Change is underway
9. We are on track to deliver the Programme for Government commitment in 1999 2 to build or significantly renovate 100 schools by 2003 and new projects are in hand which will deliver the further commitment made in 2002 3 to complete an additional 200 new or substantially refurbished schools by 2006.
THE 21ST CENTURY SCHOOL
10. Our objectives for the 21st century school are:
to deliver better services through the school environment
that focus on:
> the child at the centre - meeting the needs of individual children;
> the school at the heart of the community - meeting the needs of communities.
to deliver these services, in respect of the school estate, through the right:
> condition - a safe, secure environment;
> sufficiency - schools that match demand;
> suitability - supporting the delivery of better public services including the provision of the right facilities;
> life cycle management - taking the long term view;
> design - turning our objectives into reality.
The child at the centre
11. Delivering better services to children and young people is the primary focus of the 21st century school. This involves a growing menu of activities which are an integral part of the school agenda and which must be considered alongside more traditional provision. The future will bring further new ideas and we need to build in flexibility to be able to respond to these. We must also take account of the needs of those that deliver services in schools, and ensure that the school environment supports them in doing this.
The school at the heart of the community
12. Schools also make an important contribution to the wider community and that is the second objective for the 21st century school - to deliver better services to the community.
13. The strategy sets out the issues to be considered in developing a 21st century school focused on the needs of children, young people and communities. These provide a general framework for local authorities to use in developing local solutions, which will include balancing competing needs.
Delivering our objectives: the physical environment
14. Our objectives for the 21st century school need to be supported through the right physical environment. The strategy describes the issues, highlighted in paragraph 10 above, for consideration by local authorities.
15. Good design will be the key to turning our aspirations for the school estate into reality. Design quality is about more than aesthetics - it is achieved by the careful synthesis of many factors and is an essential part of achieving value for money. High quality design must be integrated in the planning and development process, and must involve pupils, teachers, staff and other users in developing a clear understanding of the role of the school to help create a high quality learning environment.
MAKING IT HAPPEN
Who makes it happen?: stakeholders
16. A wide range of stakeholders will be involved in implementing the strategy and their on-going involvement, through dialogue and discussion, will be important to successful implementation. There must be a shared vision, a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, and a commitment to work together positively.
How does it happen?: school estate management plans
17. The central plank of implementation will be a school estate management plan for each local authority. This plan will be a valuable management tool: it will be a living document which will draw together information to allow the authority to plan, implement and monitor progress. It should be integrated with the authority's wider asset management plans, its corporate plan and, increasingly, with its community plan.
What makes it happen?: resources
18. The strategy is a major change management programme and requires resources - funding, skills and knowledge. There are limits to these resources and successful implementation must intelligently balance priorities against resources.
Funding
19. The framework for dealing with funding issues relating to the strategy is set out below:
> local authorities develop school estate management plans which set out realistic and prioritised options for improvement. These will provide a basis for future decisions at local level, and information and insights across the school estate at a national level.
> the Scottish Executive takes national decisions, taking account of wider priorities and available resources, and informed by the picture of the school estate identified in local authorities' plans.
> both local authorities and the Scottish Executive give due weight to committing resources and to stability and sustainability of funding to implement the strategy.
20. Estate management plans should provide a focus to identify and draw together the range of needs and funding streams, and to take a long term view. Where a local authority is extending the range of services provided in schools, it needs to take account of wider resource issues, including working with community planning partners on delivering common priorities effectively.
Skills and Knowledge
21. We need to maximise shared learning to deliver a step change in the school estate. The Scottish Executive, local authorities, and others as appropriate, will explore opportunities for doing this. In addition, there should be further development of links between local authorities to share learning and good practice, and in the joint development of improvements in school provision. There is also a role for further advice to complement the strategy: guidance on school design, school estate management planning, and 'core facts', which will provide consistent key data across all local authorities, and advice on other issues will be developed to support the strategy.
When does it happen?: time
22 . Local authorities should prepare initial school estate management plans, and submit a summary of these to the Scottish Executive, by December 2003. These will provide a picture of the school estate locally and across Scotland, and inform national decisions on issues such as funding. It is likely that local authorities will want to update these plans on an annual basis, with a more fundamental review every 3-5 years.
How do we know it's happening?: measuring success
23. We want to be able to measure success in delivering our vision for the school estate. There are four strands to doing this:
> Local authorities will need to demonstrate progress against their estate management plans, the impact of investment, and value for money.
> Local authorities will wish to deliver continuous improvement which will be assisted by benchmarking among authorities.
> The Scottish Executive will measure national progress against the strategy. A small number of core facts, common to all local authorities' school estate management plans, will provide an evolving national picture.
> A qualitative evaluation of progress on the strategy will add context and detail to these other measures, to demonstrate the impact of the strategy over the longer term.
24. This cycle of monitoring and review will contribute to a dynamic strategy that delivers our vision for 21st century schools.
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