CONDITION DATA COLLECTION

Projects
CONDITION DATA COLLECTION

ENGLAND

Every government-maintained school in England is regularly surveyed under the Condition Data Collection programme (CDC), one of the largest ongoing data collection exercises undertaken in the UK public sector.

RLB is helping to deliver the programme, data from which will help the Department for Education (DfE) prioritise future funding to maintain and improve the condition of 22,500 nursery, primary and secondary schools.
The CDC programme, the successor to the Property Data Survey which ran between 2012 and 2014, was commissioned by the DfE. For the first phase (CDC1), which ran from 2017 to 2019, RLB was appointed as part of a consortia to survey 5,600 schools in just 30 months.

At a glance

Client
Department for Education
Services
Built Asset Consultancy
sector
Education & Research
Location
England

Mobile data capture

Our surveying team was tasked with providing:

Building fabric condition data across 12 elements, collected by an experienced building surveyor
Mechanical and electrical (M&E) condition data, collected by an experienced M&E surveyor
A detailed site plan drawn using AutoCAD maps and surveyor observations
A wide range of photographic evidence to support condition grading

To complete our quota within the specified timescale, our surveyors visited approximately 220 schools per month. Drawing on our experience of working in the sector, our robust programming and clear communications minimised the challenge of gaining access to schools and scheduling site visits in busy and sensitive education environments.

To ensure swift progress, our surveyors captured on-site data using our in-house mobile tablet applications, with synchronisation to a desktop version accessible to our project management office (PMO) team that included programme managers, administrators, and CAD technicians.

The Condition Data Collection programme provides a comprehensive picture of the physical condition of the school and FE college estate in England. With the support of our key delivery partners like RLB, the DfE will have an up-to-date evidence base which will help us to allocate investment in the school estate to where it is needed most, ensuring children can learn in the best environment possible and helping them to achieve their full potential.

Laurence Jones, Condition Data Collection and Net Capacity Assessment Programme Director, Department for Education

Improving data quality

RLB’s experts conducted a post-project evaluation of processes to improve the collection of data for future phases of the programme. We developed benchmark in-house quality assurance processes to review and challenge all gathered survey data prior to the approval stage. Shadow audits were also standardised to enhance governance and provide further assurance of data quality.

Delivery of second phase

Following the successful completion of CDC1, RLB was appointed to survey 61 colleges as part of a related review of the further education (FE) estate in England. RLB continues to support the DfE in the delivery of the second phase of the programme (CDC2), covering every government-funded school and FE college in England, which began in 2021 and will conclude in 2026.