GrantRadar

Department for Education

Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2027-28

The Department for Education's annual capital bidding round for academies, voluntary aided schools and sixth-form colleges that do not receive a School Condition Allocation, to keep school and college buildings safe and in good working order. Highest priority goes to compliance and health and safety work (fire protection, gas and electrical safety, emergency asbestos removal), then to critical replacement of coal and oil boilers with low-carbon heating, weather tightness, and continuous heating and water supply; a very small share funds expansion projects. The DfE says only around a third of applications succeed each year, and plans to replace CIF with a new programme by autumn 2028. The 2027-28 round closes at noon on 15 December 2026.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£20,000 – £4,000,000
Deadline
45 days left
15 December
Effort
Heavy
budgets, references, often several stages

Who can apply

  • England only
  • To be eligible you must have been one of these at the start of September 2026: a stand-alone academy; a school in a multi-academy trust with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils (Spring 2026 census or 2025/26 ILR); a voluntary aided school in a VA body or group with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils; a sixth-form college; or a school with a signed academy order at 1 September 2026 that the DfE expects to convert to a CIF-eligible responsible body by 1 April 2027
  • Pupils in special and alternative provision schools count 4.5 times for this test
  • Larger trusts and VA bodies, and local authorities with maintained schools, receive a School Condition Allocation instead and cannot apply
  • The DfE has contacted eligible schools and colleges directly
  • The buildings must be held freehold, on a lease of at least 25 years, or by charitable site trustees, and the applicant must be responsible for capital investment in them, with the landowner's consent (church schools on trustee land need the diocese's, and Church of England schools the Diocesan Board of Education's)
  • VA schools must contribute at least 10% of project costs and cannot use a CIF loan or Devolved Formula Capital for it
  • Schools selected for the School Rebuilding Programme are considered only for urgent work that cannot safely wait
  • Minimum project size is £20,000 for primary and special schools and £50,000 for secondary, all-through schools and sixth-form colleges

What it funds

Capital projects to improve an asset currently used for educational provision for pupils aged 2 to 19, in three categories:

  • Condition projects addressing building compliance, health and safety, and buildings in poor condition (highest priority: building safety, fire protection systems, gas safety, electrical safety, emergency asbestos removal)
  • Critical replacement of coal and oil-fired boilers with low-carbon heating where there is a risk of school closure
  • Weather tightness, and continuous heating and water supply
  • Condition with expansion projects
  • Expansion projects to increase admissions or address overcrowding, for schools and colleges rated good or outstanding by Ofsted and with fewer than 2,000 pupils

the costs of appointing a technical adviser to prepare the application and oversee the project are covered if the bid succeeds. ICT infrastructure (cabling, wireless and switching) is eligible only as an integral part of a larger project. Most funding goes to projects completing by 31 March 2028; larger projects may run up to two years but must finish by 31 March 2029.

What it will not fund

  • Purchase of land
  • ICT software, loose furniture and equipment
  • ICT hardware, unless clearly an integral part of the project
  • Projects started before approval to proceed is given
  • Your own staff costs for managing a project
  • Works covered by warranties, insurance, PFI contracts or a free school contractor recall
  • Insured works covered by the Risk Protection Arrangement, which must be claimed there first
  • Part of the proposed works: an application is funded in full or not at all, unless the DfE requires it to be rescoped
  • Expansion that basic need allocations should fund
  • More than two projects per school or college, or more than one expansion project

How to apply

  1. Read the 2027-28 CIF Information for Applicants and the terms and conditions and post-approval guidance on the CIF portal
  2. New applicants register for a CIF portal account by 12 noon on 30 November 2026 (go to Manage Your Education Estate, choose Funding, then Explore Funding)
  3. Prepare the evidence of project need, planning (including a bespoke costed options appraisal) and cost, with independent surveys and evidence that any technical adviser was procured properly
  4. Complete the portal application form, including any financial contribution or CIF loan
  5. The accounting officer (or a senior manager at a sixth-form college or VA school) submits the application with all supporting documents by 12 noon on 15 December 2026
  6. Outcomes are announced; an appeal window follows

a technical adviser can help prepare the bid but cannot apply for you, and the accounting officer remains responsible. Missing or incorrect documents cannot be added after the deadline, and the DfE is not obliged to tell you about them. A contribution from other sources or a CIF loan earns up to 6 extra points (for 30% or more). Questions go through the DfE Customer Help Portal; to fix an error in a submitted application, ask there by 9 December 2026 for it to be unsubmitted (allow up to 3 working days).

Have ready

  • Project need document (maximum 50 pages, Arial 11 or larger)
  • Project planning document including a bespoke, detailed, costed options appraisal (maximum 50 pages)
  • Project cost document (maximum 50 pages)
  • Hand-signed and dated Condition Improvement Fund declaration, as a PDF
  • Optional: one document of photographs, compressed to 1MB

surveys must be independent and show the surveyor's name, qualification and date. Files are named URN_SchoolName_Need/Planning/Cost/Declaration/Photographs. Expansion-only projects also need a schedule of accommodation (or, for school types other than mainstream primary and secondary, a list of accommodation).

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