The project
The Department for Education’s Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) pays for urgent condition work in academies and sixth-form colleges – fire safety, electrical rewiring, boilers and heating, windows, roofs and safeguarding. Bids are scored on need, cost and deliverability, and the window between the fund opening and the submission deadline is only a few weeks.
Working with Academy Estate Consultants (AEC), Alderton Associates has written and technically supported bids for schools from Cornwall to Suffolk. In the 2025/26 round we handled twelve bids for nine schools; in 2026/27 a further six; and for 2027/28 we are preparing twelve bids across eight primary schools in one Cornish trust, covering electrical, heating and hot water, boiler, fire alarm and fire door schemes.
For every bid we inspect the school, write the independent condition report, prepare the specification and drawings, run a competitive tender to five or six specialist contractors, analyse the returns and write the project need, cost and planning sections of the application – all within the DfE timetable and while the school is in term.
Where a bid succeeds, the same team goes on to deliver the works as Contract Administrator and Principal Designer, so the school deals with one point of contact from application to completion.
Outcome
Bids submitted on time in every round, and delivery of funded schemes through the summer holidays so that the school opens on schedule in September.
