In June 2025 the Department for Education published the School Estate Management Standards. For the first time, the expectations that were spread across Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS), health and safety law and various funding rules sit in one framework that applies to every school and responsible body.
The standards are not a new legal duty. Most of what they describe was already expected. What they do is give governors, trustees and school leaders a way to judge where they are and what "good" looks like.
What the standards cover
The framework is organised around five areas:
- Strategic estate management: having an estate strategy and plan that link to the school's educational aims and budget.
- Planning and organising estate resources: knowing what you have, what condition it is in and who is responsible for it.
- Health and safety compliance: statutory inspections, testing and the records that prove they happened.
- Sustainability and carbon reduction: understanding energy use and planning to reduce it.
- Digital technology: using systems and data to run the estate rather than spreadsheets and memory.
Each area is described at four levels, from a baseline position up to advanced. The DfE's aim is for schools to reach at least level 3, which it calls fully effective.
How it fits with GEMS and the competency framework
GEMS is still there. It remains the detailed manual on how to do each part of estate management well. The standards describe the outcome; GEMS explains how to get there. Alongside both sits the Estate Management Competency Framework from 2023, which covers the skills and roles needed to deliver it.
Where we see schools struggle
In our experience the gap is rarely the building itself. It is usually one of these:
- compliance work is being done but the certificates and records are scattered, so nobody can show it at short notice
- there is no up-to-date condition survey, so maintenance is reactive and funding bids are weak
- one person holds everything in their head, and there is no cover when they are away
- the estate plan, if there is one, is not connected to the budget
What to do next
Start with an honest self-assessment against the five areas. It does not need to be long; a page per area is enough to show where you are at baseline and where you are already fully effective. That gives governors and trustees a clear picture and a priority list.
If you would like an independent view, our School Estate Health Check does exactly this and gives you a RAG-rated report you can take to your board.