Scottish Government

BACKGROUND NOTES

1. This information is derived from the 2010 school estate core facts survey, issued to local authorities in May 2010. The survey covers all publicly funded primary, secondary and special schools open on 1 April 2010, and financial information for the 2008-09 financial year. It also contains information on the number of schools rebuilt or substantially refurbished over the last 3 financial years.

2. Data for grant aided schools and stand-alone nurseries were not collected in this survey.

3. Information from the survey is used to establish baselines, inform targets, inform spending decisions, support monitoring and evaluation of progress over time, and support assessments of value for money in the school estate.

Data quality and definitions

4. This is the sixth year that school estate data have been collected. They were previously collected in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009. The collection was piloted in December 2003, however as the 2003 data were incomplete and often of poor quality the results were not published. Not all local authorities could answer all of the questions in the survey at this time.

5. Data on the total gross internal floor area ( GIA) and area within the perimeter ( AWP) of the school estate have been scaled up to take account of missing data. As AWP data from 2008 onwards were more complete than the 2004 data, less scaling was necessary, so a simple comparison of the 2004 data with the data for later years is therefore not valid. In 2010, some schools on shared campuses where unable to provide separate information for each school. Where this is the case the combined area for the campus is only shown under the largest school. Information for the other schools on the campus are not classed as missing so totals are not scaled up to reflect this.

6. A school is recorded as having community services if there is space within it exclusively dedicated to and managed by those providing community services, such as dental, medical or police or social work. This does not refer to use of school amenities such as sports or cultural facilities by community groups. The 2008 survey guidance clarified and restricted what should be included in this category, so a comparison of the 2007 data and later years may not be valid.

7. PFI (Private Finance Initiative) refers to schools that have been built or refurbished under a public/private partnership arrangement (previously known as PPP). NPD (Non-Profit Distributing) refers to schools that have been built or refurbished under Non-Profit Distributing models. From 2008 onwards we collected information on those schools which were built or substantially refurbished under PFI/ NPD in the previous financial year only. The data collected on PFI/ NPD builds in 2007 (2006/07 financial year) covered all schools that had been built or refurbished under PFI/ NPD not just those that had been completed in the previous financial year.

8. This year we improved the quality of the data on schools rebuilt or substantially refurbished since the start of 2007/08 and have published revised figures for 2007/08 and 2008/09 in Table 4.2 of this publication. As part of this process we brought together data from administrative and statistical sources, removed duplication and agreed one completion date for each school so that schools were not counted as rebuilt for several years in a row. Previously published figures on number of schools rebuilt should not be used and more details on the revised list of rebuilt schools is available by emailing school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

9. Only rebuilds or refurbishments with a cost of 500 thousand pounds or more for primary and one million or more for secondary and special schools are included. Where a school is being refurbished or rebuilt as part of a phased project, this is only included once a phase (or a couple of phases combined) is completed and has a value greater than or equal to the amounts stated above. In order to avoid recording a school once a year over several years, any subsequent phases will not be recorded.

10. In order to ensure consistency across local authorities - new guidance on assigning condition ratings to schools - The Condition Core Fact (available from www.scotland.gov.uk/schoolestate) - was published in March 2007. All Local Authorities are now following this guidance when assigning condition ratings to schools. Prior to 2009/10, some local authorities were not following this guidance, so some of the improvement in condition ratings over the years may reflect the adoption of this guidance.

11. The condition of a school is based on the following criteria, as assessed by local authorities:

Condition A: Good - Performing well and operating efficiently.

Condition B: Satisfactory - Performing adequately but showing minor deterioration.

Condition C: Poor - Showing major defects and/or not operating adequately.

Condition D: Bad - Economic life expired and/or risk of failure.

12. Local authorities determine the formulae used to calculate capacity, in line with Scottish Government guidance (Circular No. 03/2004) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/01/20528/50015. They may therefore vary between local authorities and school types. The percentage of capacity used in each school was calculated using the number of pupils recorded at each school from the results of the September 2009 pupil census.

13. Data on the suitability of school accommodation was collected for the first time in 2010. Guidance on assigning suitability ratings is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/09/19123626/0. 31 of the 32 local authorities reported that they were following this guidance when assessing suitability. The suitability ratings are as follows:

A: Good - Performing well and operating efficiently

B: Satisfactory - Performing adequately but with minor problems

C: Poor - Showing major problems and/or not operating optimally

D: Bad - Does not support the delivery of services to children and communities

14. Prior to 2008/09, Local Government Finance collected information on capital expenditure funded by revenue and not funded by revenue. In 2008/09, they only collected information on total capital expenditure, so this is what is given in Table 8. In previous years publications the capital expenditure was based solely on capital expenditure not funded from revenue.

15. The information on utilities is incomplete. This is due to local authorities not returning complete data.

16. The following symbols are used in this publication:

- = nil or rounds to nil

# = not applicable

... = not available

General

17. Figures contained in this publication are not National Statistics. However, the standard National Statistics release practices were followed. The published results are free from political interference.

18. This is the sixth year of a rather complicated collection and it is likely that there remain some differences in the way in which local authorities are reporting information. Local authorities were also unable to provide full data for several of the questions. We are working on the inclusion of this publication within the scope of National Statistics.

19. All tables are available on the Scottish Government website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00841

20. Public enquiries (non-media) about the information contained in this Publication Notice should be addressed to:

Telephone : 0131 244 0303
or e-mail : school.stats@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

21. Media enquiries about the information contained in this Publication Notice should be addressed to:

Stuart Lewis
Telephone : 0131 244 2530

29th September 2010