The document is designed to sit alongside the Estate Management Competency Standards that were set down in 2023, to set out the competencies required of school Estate Managers. It has been written for state sponsored or endorsed schools including academy trusts and voluntary school, and equally applies to the independent school sector, that operate similar buildings with similar situations. The document explains what basic compliance looks like, as well as giving an understanding of what more advanced compliance looks like, setting a standard that should be striven for.
This document is a good starting point for all schools to help them to understand the basic expectations for the management of their school estate, and as well as the basic health and safety requirements that it sets out. There is also a focus on some key areas of compliance in fire, asbestos and Legionella. This is important as these are key areas of compliance, that in my experience, schools have the most challenges with, and enforcement authorities focus the most on. To serve as an example, the HSE recently carried out a programme by of undertaking asbestos audits in schools across the UK.
A lot of schools, whether they be state, academy or independent do not have the in house experience and knowledge to be across all areas of compliance, particularly if they are a smaller school, so the Estate Management Competency Standards document will be helpful to signpost them to the right areas of compliance for priority, and how they should be focusing their, often limited, budgets and time.
However, the document is not a detailed guide on health and safety compliance and should not replace more specific guidance such as British Standard and Health and Safety Executive published Approved Codes of Practice and Guidance, that set out the way that enforcement authorities expect buildings to be managed.
At Assurity Consulting we have worked with many independent schools and academies over the years of varying sizes with many different in-house expertise and can help support with all your health and safety and building compliance requirements through our offering of expert advice and guidance.
Our Safe School Assessment programme is particularly popular with our customers as it provides a compliance gap analysis which helps schools to understand their position and can be help you to achieve the compliance standards that this document sets out. If we can help you further, or for an initial discussion, please get in touch.