GEMS: A Refreshed Vision for your Trust’s Estate
GEMS update in Spring 2021, as we look to come out of Covid 19 and address our school’s built environment, I’ve prepared a quick digest to highlight best practice and the funding streams available to schools to help them meet their estate management objectives.
GEMS encourages schools to manage their estates by;
- Utilising their existing resources to their full potential
- Identifying and mitigating liabilities
- Using condition data to prioritise and plan maintenance and capital works
- Offsetting expenditure via successful funding applications
- Attracting inward investment and;
- Procuring as smartly as possible.
The savings that can be achieved are considerable. The funding that can be secured is greater. The opportunities available for additional income generation from successful use of the estates spaces, is greater still.
Data is key to meeting compliance requirements, qualifying the life cycle of key building fabric and components and their energy performance, to understanding effective utilisation of space and ultimately, quantifying future programmes of change and renewal.
Those schools who invest in the requisite surveys, assessments, audits and other forms of data gathering are the ones, best placed to ensure their estates deliver the trust’s education vision for their future. A desire to improve and expand the trust’s estate requires careful and prudent planning.
Trusts need to ensure that they explore every opportunity for revenue generation and make the very best of their assets. The Covid19 pandemic has reinforced that through the large loss of out of hours revenue that many have suffered. Schools also have a part to play in reducing energy consumption and their carbon footprint. The opportunities to benefit both financially from such reduction and replacement with renewable sources have never been more widely available.
Download this simple guide helps schools understand the building blocks to achieving GEMS, the benefits to be accrued.