Simon Nightingale, Head of Business Support at City Commercial, specialist business unit of City Plumbing, discusses how preventative maintenance delivers better value than reactive repairs, particularly when school budgets are under scrutiny and how extending the lifespan of existing building services and infrastructure can help schools defer major expenditure…
As the school year comes to an end, attention has now turned to carrying out summer maintenance programmes. However, for many schools and academy trusts, the challenge around planning works is no longer simply identifying what needs repairing or replacing, it is understanding what fits within heavily scrutinised budgets.
With government data showing that more than two-thirds of Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) applications are unsuccessful, the focus is shifting from replacement to extending the performance of existing infrastructure. This raises an important question for education leaders and those managing education estates: how can they achieve this while maintaining safe learning environments? The answer lies in taking a more proactive approach to asset management.
The benefits of preventative maintenance
Taking a preventative approach to school maintenance allows teams to shift from responding to failures to better managing risk. It all starts with good data. If assets are properly tagged and maintenance records are regularly updated, potential issues can be identified before they become major failures that need significant capital investment. Better asset data also gives teams more confidence when it comes to prioritising limited budgets for components that do need to be replaced.
A key factor in any maintenance work is also the impact on pupils and staff. If properly planned, this can be easily scheduled around holidays or quieter periods, so the day-to-day running of a school isn’t affected. By comparison, emergency reactive works not only cause greater disruption, but are also more costly.
Extending the life of assets
Planned servicing also helps maintain the efficiency and performance of systems such as heating, ventilation, hot water, and controls, which are under constant pressure from daily use across school estates. Many systems still have significant usable life if properly maintained, and part of the approach should be to work closely with estates teams to understand how to get the most out of them. We need to shift our thinking from defaulting to replacing assets purely because of age, rather than their condition, to deliver better value for money.
A perfect example of this is water treatment in commercial boilers or chillers. Poor water quality destroys efficiency. According to data from British Water, just 1.6mm of limescale or sludge deposit inside the heat exchanger of a boiler or water heater can reduce efficiency by 12%. It forces equipment to burn significantly more fuel and exposes the internal metal to localised overheating, which can lead to component failure. Regularly testing and then treating these systems with the right cleaners or chemicals removes that risk, extending the life of the asset. It’s a simple intervention that can have a huge impact.
The right help at the right time
While regular, planned maintenance can help manage budgets and extend the life of assets, there’s no escaping the fact that sometimes parts or components will need replacing. This is where getting hold of what you need quickly is vital to minimise both the impact of work during term time or the risk of planned repairs derailing tightly managed holiday works.
When you’re working to the deadline for pupils returning from the holidays, it can’t be overlooked. Working with suppliers with strong stock availability and the right technical support can avoid these lengthy delays. This thinking needs to be built into wider lifecycle planning rather than considered after equipment fails.
With funding remaining under pressure, schools are increasingly being asked to do more with what they already have. That makes asset management less about responding to maintenance needs as they arise and more about making informed decisions that balance cost, performance and longevity.
The summer break provides an important opportunity to carry out essential works, but the greatest value comes from having a clear understanding of the condition of an estate throughout the year. By combining good asset data, planned maintenance and access to the right products and technical support, education estates can improve reliability, reduce unnecessary expenditure and ensure buildings continue to provide safe, comfortable learning environments for years to come.
