Tailored and customer centric CIF services

Warneford Consulting provides a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) bid service on a no-win no fee basis. We have achieved many successful CIF bids and appeals through our expert consultancy which includes writing your CIF bid and all the guidance and consulting necessary to win a bid. We provide Director level involvement from day one of engagement with us.

Contact us now to discuss your CIF bid. 

On Friday 13th May, the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) published its list of successful schools that have secured vital capital funding to improve the condition of their school estate. 

The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for 2022-23 has a pot of £498 million from which some 1,405 projects were awarded to 1,129 schools from an estimated 4,000 applications submitted in time for the December 2021 deadline.

The competition between the 5,000 CIF-eligible academy schools is always stiff and the selection of the most appropriate consultant to prepare, submit and deliver award-winning submissions, is as important as choosing the right type of project to apply for.

Warneford Consulting has achieved vital CIF success for academies across the UK and from stand-alone to those within multi-academy trusts. 

The funded projects include:

• Flat and Pitched Roofing
• Boiler and Heating Systems
• Pipework Distribution
• Flood Alleviation
• Safeguarding
• Windows
• Asbestos Removal
• Legionella 

So how do you make your CIF bid stand out from the crowd?

Warneford Consulting offers a tailored and customer-centric CIF service, providing you with a single, continuous and empowered point of contact to guide you through the preparation, submission and delivery phase of every bid and project.

Watch Warneford Consulting’s MD, Tim Warneford, talk about how to write a successful CIF bid in this short video.

Contact us for a FREE CIF evaluation

Our service is provided on a no win, no fee basis, with fees recovered through the ESFA funding award. As such, we are implicitly motivated to ensure that your bid and the subsequent project delivery is a success.

We have built our service on the principal of quality above quantity, which means we can confidently say that every school that engages us is afforded the very best attention and care, as our testimonials will testify.

“I have enjoyed working with Warneford Consulting, preparing and submitting CIF applications. Tim will tell you what is and what is not possible and go the extra mile to ensure any bid is as robust as it can be”
Chris Honey, Trust Facilities Manager

In fact, we actively seek to prioritise bids that have the highest chances of success and cap our annual submission volumes so that our team have op-timum time to prepare a detailed, technically robust and project specific re-sponse that meets the full scoring criteria in each of the three weighted sec-tions; Project Need, Cost and Planning.

We assess each potential bid in consultation with our clients and dedicated supply chain partners – investing the requisite time to really understand and demonstrate project need and the impact and risk imposed on the school if funding is not secured.

Our partners undertake specialist and targeted surveys, utilising the most in-novative and efficient surveying methods to capture the detailed evidence re-quired to demonstrate poor and failing asset conditions. These surveys will clearly document the impact on your learning environment and the health, safety and welfare of your staff and pupils.

Our experienced cost management team bring over 6 years of CIF funding experience and implicit understanding of ESFA benchmarked costs and pre-vailing market rates.

With an established UK network of quality assured contractors, covering all trade disciplines and with significant academy school experience, to draw from, we guarantee a robust tender process, allowing us to demonstrate best value to the ESFA.

“Tim has proven that he is always available for advice and when he himself does not have the ready answer, he will find out from his extensive supply chain partners. He clearly cares about his clients.”
Martin Cunningham, Director of Finance and Operations

Early pre-submission input from our partners and supply chain specialists, supports production of technically detailed and site and project specific risks assessments, options appraisals and project programmes, helping us secure top scores for the project planning section of the bid.

Project plans are informed and tailored through consultation with the school, ensuring pupil and staff safety, operational continuity and excellent communi-cation through the delivery stage.

Our values of transparency and collaboration are embedded in everything we do and set us apart from other CIF consultants.
By working closely with your school, we can combine our collective knowledge and expertise to increase our chances of success and deliver a quality project for your school.

If you would like us to review a failed CIF application or would like an honest appraisal of your current chances of being awarded a CIF bid, we would be delighted to assist.