Guidance
Managing older school buildings
Guidance to help school building owners and maintenance staff identify building systems and prioritise maintenance and repair of their school estate.
- From:
- Department for Education
- Published
- 25 April 2024
- Last updated
- 11 December 2025 — See all updates
Applies to England
Documents
Managing older buildings: a guide for estates maintenance staff
PDF, 3.563.11 MB, 4857 pages
Details
This guidance is for:
- local authorities (for community, voluntary-controlled schools, foundation schools and maintained nursery schools)
- academy trusts (for academies and free schools)
- governing bodies (for voluntary-aided schools)
- school and college leaders, staff and governing bodies in:
- further education colleges and designated institutions
sixthsixth-form form colleges
- maintained schools
- academies and free schools
- pupil referral units
- city technology colleges
- non-maintained special schools
- maintained nursery schools
- technical professionals involved in the design, construction and maintenance of school premises
It provides information on:
- common construction types used in the school estate
- specific maintenance items associated with different construction
typestypes, including:
shortshort-term term actions to take
- how to seek further advice
It should be used in conjunction with ourthe guidancefollowing on guidance:
Updates to this page
Published 25 April 2024
Last updated 11 December 2025
href="#full-history">+ show all updates
-
New sections added to the guidance with additional information about construction types that are common in older school buildings.
-
First published.
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Details
This guidance is for:
- local authorities (for community, voluntary-controlled schools, foundation schools and maintained nursery schools)
- academy trusts (for academies and free schools)
- governing bodies (for voluntary-aided schools)
- school and college leaders, staff and governing bodies in:
- further education colleges and designated institutions
sixthsixth-formformcolleges- maintained schools
- academies and free schools
- pupil referral units
- city technology colleges
- non-maintained special schools
- maintained nursery schools
- technical professionals involved in the design, construction and maintenance of school premises
It provides information on:
- common construction types used in the school estate
- specific maintenance items associated with different construction
typestypes, including:shortshort-termtermactions to take- how to seek further advice
It should be used in conjunction with ourthe guidancefollowing on guidance:
Updates to this page
Published 25 April 2024
Last updated 11 December 2025
href="#full-history">+ show all updates
-
New sections added to the guidance with additional information about construction types that are common in older school buildings.
-
First published.