Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled 10-year plan to revitalise schools and colleges for every child, published on 11 February 2026, what oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that local authorities and multi-academy trusts deliver planned improvements to schools and colleges; and what steps she plans to take to help tackle non-delivery.

The department will enable all responsible bodies to proactively and effectively manage their estates by setting out clear standards and expectations alongside guidance, tools and data to support them.

We have already set out clear expectations in the School Estate Management Standards, including a ‘fully effective’ standard for estate management that every responsible body for schools should aim to meet.

From Autumn 2026, we will ask responsible bodies to make an annual return via Manage Your Education Estate to confirm they are meeting the standards. For those who are not meeting the standards, we will put in place an estate management capability support plan. This will be an informal agreement with the responsible body setting out actions and support to bring estate management up to the expected standard within 12 months.

The timelines are in the strategy, and the key milestones have been set out in annex A. The department reports on overall delivery through the annual report and accounts.