How Should a Trust Board Assess Whether Its Estates Function Is Adequately Resourced?

In my work with trusts on capability development, the resourcing question for the estates function tends to come up in two ways. The first is when something has gone wrong: a compliance failure, a missed survey, a contractor relationship that nobody was managing. The second is when a board is preparing for a governance review and discovers that it has no structured basis for the answer. The more I work with boards on this, the more I find that the second situation is far more common than boards expect. The assessment mechanism does not exist. The answer has always been assumed.

What does the Competency Framework say about resourcing?

The Estate Management Competency Framework, published by the DfE, defines four competency levels: operative (Level 1), supervisor (Level 2), manager (Level 3), and strategic (Level 4). It identifies seven functional areas of estate management and sets out, for each function, the skills and knowledge required at each level.

The framework is the structured basis for a resourcing assessment. It allows a board to ask a precise question: across the seven functional areas, at which competency level does each function need to be covered in our organisation, and do we currently have a named, capable person at that level covering it?

That question sounds straightforward. In practice, what trusts most frequently discover is that the coverage is uneven: operative and supervisor functions are typically covered, manager functions are partially covered or filled by someone whose time is split across other roles, and strategic functions are either absent or carried by a board member without the relevant professional background.

What are the board's resourcing obligations under the Standards?

The Estate Management Standards require a Responsible Body to name an individual responsible for estate management. That requirement sits at Level 1. At Level 2, the Standards require the board to be aware of its role and responsibilities towards the estate and to have the skills to fulfil them. At Level 3, the requirement moves further: the estate management function should be comprehensively staffed and resourced to deliver across all required areas.

The board's resourcing obligation is not satisfied by naming a person and recording it in a register. The Standards expect a Responsible Body to have assessed whether the named individual, and the function they lead, has the competency and resource to meet the demands of the Standards at the level the organisation is targeting.

A board that cannot describe how it assessed that question is not meeting its governance obligation on resourcing, regardless of how well the estates function is performing operationally.

How should the board structure a resourcing assessment?

The most practical approach is to use the Competency Framework as the assessment instrument and to run it as a governed exercise rather than an informal conversation. The assessment should cover: which functions are currently staffed and at which level; where there are gaps between the competency level required and the competency level present; whether the gaps are structural (a role that does not exist) or developmental (a role that exists but the capability is not yet there); and what the board's plan is to address them.

The organisations I have supported through this exercise consistently find the same pattern: the gap is most acute at Level 3 (manager) and Level 4 (strategic). Trusts that manage a multi-site estate frequently have someone performing manager-level functions at supervisor-level pay with no development plan and no succession cover. That is a resourcing gap, and it carries risk. At the strategic level, the gap is often structural: there is no one in the organisation whose role includes the strategic planning and board-facing accountability that Level 4 requires.

What does inadequate resourcing mean for the annual return?

The annual return will require a Responsible Body to confirm its position against the Standards. A Level 2 or Level 3 claim is difficult to sustain without being able to describe the resourcing structure that supports it. A board that has conducted a structured resourcing assessment has a documented basis for its claim. A board that has not is relying on an untested assumption.

The practical consequence is not just a weaker return position. It is that a capability support plan put in place after the return may require the organisation to address the resourcing gaps that a prior assessment would have identified. Doing that work under a capability support plan timetable is harder than doing it in advance.

FAQ

What is the Estate Management Competency Framework? A DfE guidance document that defines the skills and knowledge required across estate management roles in schools and trusts in England. It is organised around seven functional areas and four competency levels, from operative to strategic.

Who should conduct the resourcing assessment? The assessment is a board-level governance task, but it should be informed by the estates lead and, where available, by an external practitioner with knowledge of the Competency Framework. A board conducting the assessment without input from the function itself is unlikely to surface the granular gaps.

Do we need a Level 4 (Strategic) person in post? The Competency Framework does not require a named individual at each level. It asks whether every function is covered at the level the organisation's complexity requires. For a large multi-academy trust, the absence of strategic-level estate management leadership is a structural gap. For a smaller single-site trust, the same functions may be covered differently.

What if we cannot afford to fill the gaps we identify? The resourcing assessment does not create an obligation to immediately fill every gap. It creates an obligation to know what the gaps are, to report them to the board, and to have a plan for addressing them. A board that knows its gaps and has a documented improvement plan is in a materially different governance position from one that does not.

How often should we run the assessment? Annually, as part of the annual skills assessment cycle required by the Standards from Level 1 onwards. Also at the point of acquiring a new academy or when there is significant change in the estates team.

Julie Lawson leads the People and Capability domain at The Estates Strategy Partnership.