How we work
Entry is conversational. The way in is a short introductory conversation, fifteen or thirty minutes: a chance to understand where your organisation is and what you want your estate to make possible, and to see how the partnership might help. There is no charge, no preparation, and no verdict on your current arrangements. It is not an hour-long interrogation of what you have in place, and you do not need to have read the framework or mapped your gaps before you book.
From the conversation, the next step that fits you follows naturally: a place on the development programme, one of the fixed-scope engagements, a single service from the visible menu, or the staged pathway below. Sometimes the right next step is nothing at all this year, and the conversation will say so.
The staged pathway
For the organisation that wants the full picture, the staged pathway is the fullest expression of how the partnership works. It is reached through the conversation and it is never a requirement; no other way in depends on it.
The logic behind it is simple to state. Managing an estate well follows a natural order: know the estate and review compliance; put the governance around it in place; measure its condition and capability; plan its improvement and investment; and then run it and evidence it as a settled rhythm. The staged pathway follows that order, offered in stages a Responsible Body (the trust, governing body, local authority, or proprietor accountable for the estate) can procure at the size it needs. It is built to work alongside the people who already hold your estate, in-house expertise or not, adding capacity and specialist support at the points where it helps.
Stage 1
Initial Consultation
Stage 2
Assessment and Gap Analysis
Stage 3
Improvement Plan
Stage 4
Ongoing Services
Stage 1: Initial Consultation (about one hour). Structured discovery across all five connected domains of estate management. It identifies priority gaps and clarifies the accountability position of the named individual responsible for the estate. It concludes with a clear statement of where the organisation is, what the DfE Estate Management Standards require and expect, and what the priority gaps are.
Stage 2: Assessment and Gap Analysis. A structured assessment of the estate mapped against the maturity levels of the DfE Estate Management Standards, with prioritised recommendations, delivered by the relevant partner or member practice. It produces a structured assessment of where your organisation stands, a documented gap register, and the foundation of an improvement plan: a record that the Responsible Body knew its obligations and has assessed its position against the evidence, with a plan taking shape to close the gaps. We call that record professional due diligence infrastructure, because it is what the responsible person relies on if the organisation's position is ever questioned.
Stage 3: Improvement Plan. A documented improvement plan: what will be done, in what order, owned by whom, over what timescale. It is the start of the long-term relationship rather than the end of a project.
Stage 4: Ongoing Services. The visible menu of nine areas of support, entered wherever your improvement plan says to start: consultancy, governance training, condition surveys and building management (delivered by the member practice that brings that expertise into the partnership ), people development, assurance processes, and, where an improvement plan calls for it, EstatesBase implementation.
The annual estates review. One engagement gives the whole relationship its rhythm: an annual review with two lenses. The first lens is the improvement plan: progress, changes in the framework, and reprioritisation. The second is the estate itself, reviewed against its vision, its strategy and its asset management plan. The review feeds the board's assurance reporting, and it is the natural point at which each year's priorities are reset.
Engagements and charges
| Engagement | What it involves | Charge |
|---|---|---|
| The introductory conversation (fifteen or thirty minutes) | A short, open conversation: where the organisation is, what it wants its estate to make possible, and which next step fits. No verdict, no preparation required. | No charge |
| Stage 1: Initial Consultation (about one hour) | Structured discovery across all five connected domains. Priority gaps identified; the accountability position of the named individual clarified; a clear statement of where the organisation is and what the Standards require. | No charge |
| Stage 2: Assessment and Gap Analysis | Structured assessment mapped against the DfE Standards maturity levels. Prioritised recommendations per domain. Produces the documented record the responsible person relies on. | Fixed fee |
| Stage 3: Improvement Plan | A documented improvement plan: what, in what order, owned by whom, over what timescale. | Fixed fee |
| Stage 4: Ongoing Services | The nine areas of support, entered wherever the plan says to start. | Charged per service, scoped at proposal stage |
| The annual estates review | The improvement plan and the estate itself, reviewed together once a year, feeding the board's assurance reporting. | Recurring fixed fee |
Three other ways to begin
The development programme, the fixed-scope engagements and the forums channel sit alongside the pathway as three other ways to begin. Each leads on naturally to the conversation and, where the fit is right, to the pathway, and none requires it.
The development programme.
Practical estates education for the people who carry the estate, delivered by practitioners who also do the work: a way in that nobody has to admit failure to take.
Fixed-scope engagements.
An annual return readiness review, an estate health check, a quick-wins cost review and survey commissioning support: each fixed in scope, each producing an immediately useful output without creating new work in your schools.
Briefings, roundtables and listening circles.
The partnership convenes and joins briefings, roundtables and listening circles through trusted networks and established forums, and publishes the education estates insight report alongside podcast-style content. In listening circles the partnership's main role is to listen. Nothing is sold in the room; it is where good conversations start, and they go further only if you want them to. There is no exhibition presence this year.
Where to start
Wherever your organisation is with its estate, that is the right place to start.