Where each obligation lives as a working record
The DfE framework asks every Responsible Body (the trust, governing body, local authority, or proprietor accountable for the estate) to hold, evidence, and return estate information. EstatesBase holds each of those obligations as a working record rather than a document written for the occasion.
The annual return is compiled in the platform: estate data is assembled for submission through the DfE's annual return portal (MYEE), with academic year, DfE reference, status, and completeness tracking, and levels can be frozen for the return. The maturity position is calculated, not declared: the level and score come from live compliance data, the declared level is distinguished from the level the evidence supports, and a divergence between the two raises a gap automatically. Sufficiency data (sites, buildings, gross internal floor area, capacity against numbers on roll, utilisation) and suitability assessments scored against DfE criteria sit as datasets in the same record. The compliance position can be read across governance, operating model, compliance, people, and assurance groupings, with RAG status and unmet indicators for each. On the governance side, named roles, board sign off, policies, and strategic documents are held with review dates and an immutable record of who approved what, and when.
What is the DfE framework, and what does it ask of you?
The DfE framework, as EstatesBase uses the term, is built around four Department for Education documents: the Education Estates Strategy (February 2026), the estate management standards, Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS), and the Estate Management Competency Framework. The platform was designed around these four from the outset. Beyond them, it is maintained against the wider canon of published DfE guidance as it grows, including the further education estate management standards, the Academy Trust Handbook, the maintained schools and academy trusts governance guides, the net capacity assessment guidance, and the guidance on inclusive education estates. The four are the foundation the platform is built on; the wider canon is what it is kept current against, so the record stays in step with what the department asks for over time.
The dates are published. The Manage Your Education Estate service (MYEE) launched in February 2026. Common data and digital standards and guides are published from April 2026. The further education estate management standards were published in July 2026, delivering the Strategy's commitment to an equivalent standard for colleges (GOV.UK, Department for Education, July 2026). The first light touch annual return runs from autumn 2026. Data pilots run in 2026-27, with national rollout of the DfE's data collection planned from autumn 2027. From autumn 2028, a new programme replaces the Condition Improvement Fund, allocating maintenance funding on evidence without full bids; two-way data sharing between Responsible Bodies and the department is introduced by 2028. The target is full coverage of all Responsible Bodies for 2029-30. (Education Estates Strategy, Department for Education, February 2026; the School Estate Management Standards were published in April 2025.)
The direction of the calendar is the point. Capital access is moving towards evidence: the organisations that hold their own current condition, compliance, and asset data will be able to show their case from their own record when funding stops being a bidding exercise. The first return in autumn 2026 is light touch, and the support arrangements around the standards are support, not penalty. The advantage of starting early is a compounding one: every term of recorded work is condition and compliance evidence you will already hold when the evidence starts to matter for funding.
An estate that is safe, compliant and accessible is part of what lets every child learn, and the record holds the evidence for it. The accessibility plan and its reviews sit alongside the named roles and strategic documents, suitability is assessed against the department's criteria, sufficiency holds capacity against numbers on roll, and accessibility audits run as their own register. Adapting a building for inclusion is a design and capital decision the department's inclusive design guidance supports; what the platform does is hold the plan, the assessments and the audits as one evidenced record.
April 2025
School Estate Management Standards published
February 2026
Manage Your Education Estate service (MYEE) launched
April 2026
Common data and digital standards and guides published
July 2026
Further education estate management standards published
Autumn 2026
First light touch annual return
2026-27
Data pilots, with national rollout planned from autumn 2027
Autumn 2028
New programme replaces the Condition Improvement Fund
2029-30
Target of full coverage of all Responsible Bodies
EstatesBase and The Estates Strategy Partnership are two complementary parts of one estates capability. The partnership advises on governance, capability, and operating model. EstatesBase operationalises and evidences that work: it is where the estate is recorded, managed, and its evidence held. Each stands alone and is bought in its own right, and the two are commonly owned. Together they compound, because the advice and the platform are built on the same understanding of what the DfE framework requires.
See where your estate record stands against the estate management standards. The check runs on this page.
Questions about the framework
What is the DfE annual return, and when is the first one?
From autumn 2026, every Responsible Body (the trust, governing body, local authority, or proprietor accountable for the estate) will be asked to make a light touch annual return through the DfE's Manage Your Education Estate service (MYEE), confirming how they are meeting the School Estate Management Standards (Education Estates Strategy, Department for Education, February 2026). In EstatesBase, the return is compiled rather than assembled: the annual returns module holds academic year, DfE reference, status, and completeness tracking against the live estate record.
Who is the Responsible Body, and what is it accountable for?
Every Responsible Body (the trust, governing body, local authority, or proprietor accountable for the estate) is accountable for how the estate is managed and evidenced, including the annual return from autumn 2026. In EstatesBase, that accountability is held as working records: named governance roles with vacancy handling, board sign off recorded as immutable events, and a governance register that puts obligation against execution on one surface.
What are the estate management standards, and how do the maturity levels work?
The School Estate Management Standards (published April 2025) set out the Department for Education's expectations for managing the school estate across four levels: baseline, transitioning, fully effective, and advanced. Each level describes practice an organisation can evidence. In EstatesBase, the maturity level is calculated from live compliance data rather than declared: the system distinguishes the level an organisation says it is at from the level its evidence supports, raises a gap when the two diverge, and can freeze levels for the annual return.
What is changing about capital funding?
From autumn 2028, the Department for Education introduces a new programme to replace the Condition Improvement Fund, making maintenance funding accessible on evidence, without full bids (Education Estates Strategy, February 2026). The organisations that hold their own current condition, compliance, and asset data will be able to make their case from their own record. In EstatesBase, that record accumulates from the daily work: condition surveys, completed statutory tasks, and asset data are the funding evidence, held as they are produced.
What are the published dates in the DfE Estates Strategy timeline?
As published in the Education Estates Strategy (Department for Education, February 2026): the Manage Your Education Estate service launched in February 2026; common data and digital standards and guides are published from April 2026; the first light touch annual return runs from autumn 2026; data pilots run in 2026-27 with national rollout of the data collection planned from autumn 2027; from autumn 2028 a new programme replaces the Condition Improvement Fund, with two-way data sharing introduced by 2028; the target is full coverage of all Responsible Bodies for 2029-30. The School Estate Management Standards were published in April 2025, and the further education estate management standards in July 2026 (GOV.UK, Department for Education).
What is GEMS, and how does EstatesBase hold estate data in its terms?
Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS) is the Department for Education's guidance manual on managing the education estate, from fundamentals and strategy through land, buildings, maintenance, health and safety, and projects. EstatesBase holds data in GEMS terms where the framework defines them: condition surveys grade the estate A to D on the GEMS convention, and staff competency is assessed against the seven GEMS estate functions, so the record is already in the form the framework expects.
What does the Estate Management Competency Framework expect of our people?
The Estate Management Competency Framework sets out the functions, skills, knowledge, and training needed to manage the school estate, as guidance and expectation. The hard statutory core is the competent person requirement: specific duties must be carried out or overseen by someone competent to do so. In EstatesBase, competency is a live record: individual levels are assessed against the seven estate functions with a gap analysis view, and the organisational capability position rolls up from those records into a board summary owned by the nominated individual.
Do estate management standards apply to further education colleges?
Yes. The further education estate management standards (FE EMS) were published in July 2026, delivering the Education Estates Strategy's commitment to an equivalent standard for colleges (GOV.UK, Department for Education, July 2026). They bring together legal requirements with good practice guidance and support colleges in self-assessing their estate management practice. EstatesBase holds the underlying records for college estates in the same way as for schools and trusts, with FE pricing on its own published rate card.
What data does the annual return need?
The first return asks Responsible Bodies to confirm how they are meeting the School Estate Management Standards, and it is deliberately light touch (Education Estates Strategy, February 2026). The record behind that confirmation is the estate's own data. EstatesBase tracks completeness against the return, and its standard reports include a DfE annual estate return export covering condition, compliance, and asset data, compiled from the live record rather than gathered for the occasion.
Where does accessibility and SEND provision sit in the record?
Each Responsible Body must keep an up-to-date accessibility plan for its estate under the Equality Act 2010, and local authorities keep provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities under review. In EstatesBase, the parts of that picture the estate record holds are held as working records. The accessibility plan and its review dates sit alongside the other strategic documents and named roles. Accessibility runs as a statutory compliance stream with its own audit register: audit date, auditor, actions, budget, and review date. Suitability assessments score each building's fitness for purpose against DfE criteria, and sufficiency data holds capacity against numbers on roll. Adapting a building for inclusion is a design and capital decision the DfE's inclusive design guidance supports, not something the platform performs; what the platform does is hold the plan, the audits, and the data as one evidenced record.
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