Last Autumn, schools eligible for the school condition allocation (SCA) received a share of £1.6 million to maintain and improve building condition. 35% of SCA funding 2024-2025 went to MATs, 29% to local authority (LA) maintained schools, and 28% to institutions eligible for the condition improvement fund (CIF). The rest was split between voluntary aided (VA) schools, non-maintained special schools, and specialist post-16 institutions.
It’s always good news when your school is a recipient of capital funding. But, one of the biggest challenges is knowing where you’re best to spend it. You want to feel confident that the funds are going towards projects that have the maximum positive impact on the students and staff of your school. Read on for our handy tips to make prioritising your SCA funds clearer and simpler.
What is SCA funding for?
SCA funding is intended to support good estate management in schools. As long as it’s spent on activities that link with this aim, then it’s up to the recipients to decide what they put school condition allocation funds towards.
For example, SCA can be spent on:
- Upholding school building compliance
- Addressing health and safety issues
- Improvements to energy efficiency
The flexibility to choose where funds are spent is hugely advantageous, as you can react to the changing priorities of your school’s buildings. But to do so, you need to understand the condition of them in the first place.
Understanding school condition, with Every Compliance By IRIS
With Every Compliance, our school compliance software, you can feel confident you know the condition of your buildings and sites, inside and out.
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View and track the condition of all buildings and assets from a single dashboard
No more jumping from tab to tab to access this data. With Every Compliance, it’s all stored in a central place, meaning you can get the hands on the information you’re after simply and efficiently.
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Drill-down into the details
Once you’ve got this condition insight, it’s time to look at where and what the issues are within each building. Our drill-down function lets you zoom in on individual sites, buildings, and assets, meaning you can spot which areas need maintenance prioritising – and where school capital funding, like SCA, needs channelling.
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Generate reports that can be used as evidence for funding
All this data can then be compiled into a variety of handy reports. These can help you make the most informed decisions about where SCA funding should be spent. Plus, they’re valuable evidence for any future capital funding applications, like CIF.
Every Compliance users also use the reporting tool as a strategic development aid. You can generate and compare condition reports for buildings and assets over several years, so you can spot trends in where funding has been – or needs to be – allocated.
Is there a time limit to spend SCA funding?
With this condition data readily available, you can feel confident that you’re able to get the most from the capital funding – and importantly, not run out of time to do! The school condition allocation has time limits to be spent, which change depending on the type of organisation they’re given to. Any grant that’s not spent by this limit is at risk of clawback.
Local authorities
Between May 2025 and January 2026, LAs will receive funds in nine instalments of equal value. The time they need to be spent in is in line with general local government arrangements.
Academy trusts and voluntary-aided bodies
Academy trusts and VA bodies have slightly less time than LAs to spend any SCA. They are given four equal instalments of funds between May and August 2025. MATs are allowed to carry over an amount up to the equivalent of 100% of its 2024-2025 allocation into 2025-2026.
Non-maintained special schools and special post-16 institutions
Both types of organisations will receive SCA via a single payment in May 2025. This must be spent by the 31st of March of the financial year it’s paid, so 2025-2026.
SCA funding: How we can help
There you have it, your whistle-stop tour on how to know where to spend school condition allocation funds.
If your school or MAT has received a share of the cash, why not get in touch with our friendly team? We’ll show you the types of condition data you could take advantage of in Every Compliance to make the most informed spending decisions.
