School Maintenance Plans and Rolling Facilities Evaluations

Policy

This policy explains the process that schools must follow to create a 5-year School Maintenance Plan. It also overviews the purpose and process of Rolling Facilities Evaluations.

Summary

• All schools are required to develop and maintain a 5-year School Maintenance Plan to help budget, schedule and manage the maintenance of their buildings and grounds.
• The School Maintenance Plan supports schools to address maintenance issues identified through the Rolling Facilities Evaluation, which gives schools comprehensive information about the condition of their assets.
• The School Maintenance Plan will be underpinned by:
  • recommendations following assessments conducted through the Rolling Facilities Evaluation
  • available maintenance budget and
  • an understanding of the risks that may impact their assets.
• Schools will be able to access their plan using the Asset Information Management System (AIMS) (login required). Once schools have finalised their plan, it must then be submitted through AIMS to the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) for endorsement at the start of the 5-year period of the plan.

Details

School Maintenance Plans – an overview

Principals are responsible for maintaining their school’s buildings and grounds with their Student Resource Package allocation funding.

The School Maintenance Plan helps schools to budget, schedule and manage the maintenance of their buildings and grounds using AIMS (login required).

The School Maintenance Plan is a 5-year plan that supports schools to address maintenance issues identified in assessments conducted through the Rolling Facilities Evaluation, which gives schools comprehensive information about the condition of their assets every 5 years.

The School Maintenance Plan also enables schools to record and manage asset risks and build a cyclical routine maintenance program to prevent the recurrence of maintenance issues.

The Department requires schools to have an endorsed School Maintenance Plan as an attestation of compliance with required maintenance on site. It is also a prerequisite for any applications for infrastructure funding through grants processes, and for school-funded facilities applications.

Rolling Facilities Evaluations – an overview

The Rolling Facilities Evaluation is conducted by the VSBA and involves 5-yearly assessments of the condition of school buildings and other infrastructure such as car parks, footpaths and fencing at all Victorian government schools (condition assessment). These findings will be detailed by the VSBA in a Condition Assessment Report.

The Rolling Facilities Evaluation is delivered on a rolling 5-year cycle and approximately 300 schools will be assessed each year. The current Rolling Facilities Evaluation program is in year 1 of the 5-year cycle and will complete this cycle at the end of 2027.

The Rolling Facilities Evaluation ensures that the VSBA maintains up-to-date data about the condition of schools. This data is used to inform where investment in maintenance needs to be prioritised.

Condition assessment

The VSBA will contact schools approximately 2 months before their condition assessment to invite principals to attend an information session to learn how to prepare for their assessment.

The VSBA has engaged a service provider to undertake the assessments. Following the information sessions, a service provider will contact the school to schedule the assessment and will ask schools to complete and return a pre-assessment questionnaire to record the school’s maintenance issues.

It is also important that school asset management system (SAMS) plans are kept up to date so that the Condition Assessment Report includes all buildings and grounds. To update your SAMS plan, email any changes to the team at sams@education.vic.gov.au

Condition Assessment Report

Schools will receive a detailed Condition Assessment Report (CAR) approximately 4 to 6 weeks after the condition assessment. Schools will then be able to view and download a copy of the CAR in AIMS. Detailed instructions on downloading a CAR can be found in the AIMS user guide (DOCX).

The report will identify:

• the school’s condition score
• the school’s condition issues, known as defects
• the priority and recommended timing to address the defects (Priority 1 within 6 months, Priority 2 within 12 months)
• actions needed to address the defect, for example clean blockages, replace light fitting, patch or re-paint
• the recommended tradespeople needed to address the issues, for example, electrician, plumber
• issues that will require further investigation by a specialist tradesperson.

Schools have 10 business days to review the report. They can accept the report or provide feedback to the VSBA Rolling Facilities Evaluation team.

Specialist assessments

During the Rolling Facilities Evaluation condition assessment, an assessor will sometimes identify a potential defect that cannot be fully investigated during the assessment. This is because the cause and extent of the defect is difficult to determine. The Rolling Facilities Evaluation assessor will mark this potential defect on the Condition Assessment Report and record it as requiring a ‘specialist assessment’.

The VSBA will forward the details of the specialist assessment to a service provider engaged by the Department who will contact the school to arrange a time for a specialist assessor to visit. This assessor will conduct a more detailed investigation of the defect. Following the investigation, the assessor will produce a report which will be reviewed and approved by the VSBA and provided to the school.

Bushfire Attack Level and Shelter in Place assessments

In addition to condition assessments, the Rolling Facilities Evaluation will conduct a review of Bushfire Attack Level and a Shelter in Place assessment for schools on the Bushfire at Risk Register.

These assessments are being undertaken to ensure that all schools on the Bushfire at Risk Register receive regular and consistent assessments to determine the bushfire risk level of the school and improve the ember resistance of designated Shelters in Place.

Preparing a School Maintenance Plan

Following a school’s condition assessment, the VSBA will pre-populate the school’s plan with the maintenance activities identified by their condition assessment, and recommended routine maintenance tasks that should be undertaken regularly.

The school will then prioritise and schedule their condition-based and routine activities to develop a 5-year School Maintenance Plan. Schools will be guided by:

• the Rolling Facilities Evaluation recommendations
• available maintenance budget
• an understanding of the risks that may impact their assets.

Schools can tailor their School Maintenance Plan to their unique school environment. This includes:

• recording and managing maintenance issues outside the scope of the Rolling Facilities Evaluation
• new maintenance issues that arise during the period of the plan
• updating the plan’s maintenance schedules and activities as they are completed.

All schools are required to develop a 5-year School Maintenance Plan following their condition assessment. When schools have finalised their plan, it must be submitted to the VSBA for endorsement at the start of the 5-year period of the plan. Detailed instructions on how to submit a plan can be found in the AIMS user guide (DOCX).

Schools are responsible for implementing the endorsed School Maintenance Plan, including completing scheduled maintenance activities and updating the School Maintenance Plan to reflect changes.

Learning to use the School Maintenance Plan

The VSBA delivers regular training workshops throughout the school year to introduce schools to the plan, familiarise them with AIMS, and assist them in developing their plan.

Following a school’s condition assessment and finalisation of their Condition Assessment Report, the VSBA will invite schools to attend a workshop.

Access the School Maintenance Plan

School Maintenance Plans are currently available to schools that have received their condition assessment and finalised their Condition Assessment Report.

Detailed information on how schools can use AIMS to access, review and submit School Maintenance Plans can be found in the AIMS user guide (DOCX).

To access useful resources for the School Maintenance Plan, refer to the Resource tab.

Benefits of School Maintenance Plans

Schools will have updated information about their assets to make informed decisions about what maintenance activities should be undertaken, when the works should occur, and whether a specific trade should be engaged.

Planning maintenance activities over a 5-year period will help schools manage their annual Student Resource Package funding and schedule works more efficiently to get better value for money.

By reviewing the plan regularly and keeping it up-to-date throughout the 5-year period, schools create a shared record of their planned and historical maintenance programs that can become a legacy document for future school leadership to refer to.

How the VSBA uses School Maintenance Plans

School Maintenance Plans enable the VSBA to collect information about the maintenance activities undertaken by schools and the costs. This information forms part of the evidence base used by the VSBA to inform decisions by government about investment in school infrastructure.

As schools develop and manage their plan, the VSBA will be able to identify opportunities for support through its programs.

Schools should update their plan regularly so that asset planning and investment decisions are informed by the most up-to-date and accurate information about the maintenance needs of each school.

Related policies

• Planned Maintenance Program

Contacts

Rolling Facilities Evaluation team

Email: rfeproject@education.vic.gov.au

Phone: 03 7022 2221

School Maintenance Plan team

Email: maintenance.plan@education.vic.gov.au

Phone: 03 7022 2212

Guidance

There is no further guidance for this topic. For more information, refer to the Resources tab.

Resources

Detailed information on how schools can use the Asset Information Management System (AIMS) (staff login required) to access, review and submit School Maintenance Plans can be found in the AIMS user guide (DOCX) and AIMS Knowledge Centre.

Schools should use the School pre-submission checklist before submitting the School Maintenance Plan to the Victorian School Building Authority for review and endorsement: School pre-submission checklist (PDF) (login required).