School Asset Management Plan (AMP) Update Project May to November 2005 - Data and plans for your school buildings and premises

1. Overview of Project
   
   The Department for Education and Skills requires all Local Education Authorities to submit a full set of up to date information about school buildings and premises in the Autumn of 2005. This exercise is part of the on going development of Asset Management Planning and enables the DfES to monitor the quality of the school buildings stock nationally and informs how they allocate capital monies to LEAs and schools year on year.
   
   All schools in Norfolk have access to the current information about the Condition and Suitability of their school buildings via the EsiNet web site http://schools.norfolk.gov.uk/go/myschool/ click on:-
   
   School Management and Governance > My School [Log-in will be requested at this point] > Buildings > Asset Management Plan
   
   (NB If you need to confirm your school log in and/or password for the My School section (formally School Management Resources) on EsiNet, please contact ICT Solutions on 0845 3033003)
   
   Schools will have received guidance (see MI Sheets 83/04 and 25/05) about how to access, monitor and propose updates to this information. In addition, all Norfolk schools have just completed the 2006/07 school Net Capacity Return where the Sufficiency data (which details all of the rooms / areas in a school along with their dimensions and usage) as part of agreeing the capacity your school has for pupils and the related Admission Number for September 2006.
   
   In theory all schools Condition, Suitability and Sufficiency data along with any related floor and site plans should be up to date and maintained as such on a continual basis. In practice this is not the case for all schools. In addition, the DfES has recently published new guidance on school building areas (Building Bulletin 98 - Secondary Schools, Building Bulletin 99 - Primary Schools and Building Bulletin 77 Special Schools) which means the current Suitability assessments of your school accommodation, that you have access to on EsiNet, cannot be relied upon to be fully compliant with the new area guidelines. More information about the new area guidelines for school buildings is available on the DfES Teachernet website at:
   
   www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/resourcesfinanceandbuilding/schoolbuildings/
   
   Given the above Norfolk County Council Children's Services will be carrying out a project from May to November this year to review, update and improve the quality of schools buildings and premises data and plans. In carrying out the project we will minimise the amount of input schools need to make to the process, but will allow for key inputs from headteachers and governors that will ensure the accuracy and manner in which schools access, monitor and update their Asset Management Planning data, on an ongoing basis beyond the life of this project, is improved and made easier. In setting out how the project will be carried out we have consulted closely with headteacher and governor representatives on the Asset Management Planning Advisory and Consultative Group (AMPAC) and the Children's Services Capital Priorities Group. We have also listened to other feedback received direct from individual headteachers and other school staff and will be taking on board examples of DfES best practice in how the AMP data for your school is recorded and made available to you, thereby assisting with the maintenance and the planning of developments at your school.
   
   
2. How the project will be conducted
   
   The Suitability, Sufficiency and Condition data for all schools needs to be reviewed over the next six months or so and where one or more of the above elements of data and related plans need updating appropriate action will be taken by the County Council to ensure this happens as part of this project. The steps necessary to improve the quality of data, where needed, will involve a combination of 'desktop' checks by officers / consultants at the County Council and visits to schools. Not all schools will need to be visited but all schools will be advised of any amendments made to their AMP data / plans and asked to comment upon any re-assessment and sign-off the updated information when it is ready to share with you. This is an important part of the process and the opportunity for headteachers and governors to make sure the 'Key Issues' about your school accommodation are captured, and inform the County Council's, as well as your own, school premises development planning activities. From the County Council's perspective the AMP data for your school will continue to be the primary means by which priorities are assessed and funding allocated to school based building projects.
   
   To make the process of schools checking their AMP data reassessments / revisions as straight forward as possible, a report and plans will be produced and sent to you in paper format, as well as being available electronically on the EsiNet web site as mentioned above. The paper version will be along the lines of best practice examples which we have shared with a number of school representatives already, but the electronic information will remain the version that will need to be regularly monitored and maintained by schools and referred to by the County Council. We will improve, with the help of school representatives with whom we regularly meet, the electronic version of your school AMP data on EsiNet and the ease by which this is accessed. We will also provide to schools a clear statement as to how and when the AMP data for your school should be reviewed and maintained beyond the life of this project.
   
   
3. Information to Headteachers and Chair of Governors at ALL schools
   
   and
   
   Action required by Secondary Schools other than Blyth Jex, City of Norwich, Heartsease, Hellesdon, Hethersett, Lynn Grove, Notre Dame, Sprowston, Wymondham College - please see Appendix A and the attached example, read and respond as requested to the important note about curriculum analysis and identifying shortfalls in accommodation)
   
   With effect from early May 2005, the majority of High Schools and around 25 percent of other schools will need to be visited as part of the above project for the purpose of reviewing and improving the AMP data in line with current DfES requirements. This process will be carried out on a rolling basis through the Summer and early Autumn terms and
   
   
   • schools will be contacted by telephone or email in order for a date to be agreed when one or, a small team (no more than 3 people) of surveyors / officers from the County Council will visit the school and carry out the necessary checks on the school accommodation.
     
     
   • schools will be invited to nominate a member of staff (headteacher or other person who has a detailed understanding of the issues relating to the school buildings and premises) who will either:
   
   
   
   1. accompany the surveyor(s) whilst they visit all relevant parts of the school buildings
      
      or
      
      
   2. meet the surveyor(s) initially so that an initial discussion relating to the visit can take place and then be available at the end of the visit for any points of detail to be clarified.
   
   
   Headteachers should consider carefully who carries out the above role given this will be an important opportunity for ensuring the 'Key Issues' to do with the Suitability, Sufficiency and overall accuracy of data relating to the school buildings are fully captured.
   
   Once the AMP data for your school has been fully checked by the County Council and the electronic version held centrally updated (available to you via EsiNet as mentioned above) a printed report will be sent to you. At this point headteachers should ensure:-
   
   
   1. that you are content with the accuracy of the data and that any 'key issues' are clearly documented
      
      and
      
      
   2. that the Chair of Governors and / or the governors Premises Committee are also content with the data / documentation
      
      
   The above input from schools will be the opportunity to feedback any remaining comments or issues to do with their AMP data prior and to formal 'sign off' the data by schools and the transfer, by the County Council, to the DfES in November 2005. More details about this final stage will be sent to schools in due course.
   
   
4. Support and further guidance for schools
   
   This project is being co-ordinated by the Children's Services Planning and Buildings Team in partnership with NPS Property Consultants and other supporting consultants and advisers. More information about the project in general can be provided by contacting one of the following people:-
   
   Planning and Buildings Strategic Team:-
   

   Jane Blackwell, Strategic Team	jane.blackwell@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 222287
   Simon Conner, Strategic Team	simon.conner@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 222503
   Chris Harrision, Strategic Team	chris.harrision@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 222353
   Steve Hicks, Strategic Team	steve.hicks@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 222353

   
   NPS Prpoerty Consultants Ltd:-
   

   Richard Leigh, Asset Management Surveyor	richard.leigh@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 222753
   Rob Crawford-Condie, Educationalist	rob.crawford-condie@norfolk.gov.uk	01603 706622

   
   Where schools will need to be visited as part of this project, appointments will be made by the NPS Property Consultants Helpdesk. Should schools need to contact the NPS Survey Team they should speak to Rosemary Smith on 01603 706710. Any additional information or details relating to the review and update of you school AMP data by the surveying team will be dealt with by NPS Property Consultants and may involve one or more telephone calls or emails to your school. However these communications will be kept to an essential minimum.

Appendix A - Curriculm Analysis and Identification of Shortfalls in Accommodation - Secondary Schools

Example - Example of Information Needed from Secondary Schools