Condition Improvement Fund bids, backed by the contractor who delivers the works

The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) is the Department for Education’s capital grant for keeping academy, sixth-form college and voluntary aided school buildings safe and in good working order. Rossair supports CIF bids for heating, ventilation, water and electrical projects with the evidence a bid is scored on: a costed options appraisal, a fixed-price quote and a programme built around term dates. If the bid succeeds, our engineers deliver the works. We supported Chichester College’s CIF bid and delivered the funded project.

Talk to us about a CIF bidSee the education hub
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What we deliver

The mechanical and electrical side of a CIF bid, then the works

CIF bids are scored on three things: project need (55 points), project planning (20 points) and project cost (25 points). Need comes from an independent condition survey. Planning and cost are where most M&E bids lose marks: no real options appraisal, estimates instead of fixed quotes, and a programme that ignores the school calendar. That is the part we build with you and your technical adviser. Under DfE rules the condition survey has to come from a firm that is not quoting for the works, so we work from your surveyor’s report, not instead of it.

  • Costed options appraisal for the plant: repair, like-for-like replacement, heat pump or hybrid
  • Fixed-price quote with a written commitment to hold the price if appointed
  • Electrical load assessment and feasibility for low carbon heating
  • Programme planned around term dates, exams and holiday working
  • Plant history and failure records from our maintenance logs, for schools we already look after
  • Delivery by our own engineers, then commissioning, handover and the health and safety file
Toshiba USX modular heat pump units installed on the roof at Chichester College
CIF 2027-28

What schools need to know about this round

These points come from the DfE’s information for applicants for CIF 2027-28, published in October 2026. Check GOV.UK before you submit, as dates can change.

Key dates

The application window opened on 21 October 2026. New applicants must register for a CIF portal account by 12 noon on 30 November 2026. Applications and all supporting documents must be in by 12 noon on 15 December 2026. Outcomes are expected in May 2027, with appeals from June.

Who can apply

Stand-alone academies, schools in multi-academy trusts with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils, small voluntary aided bodies and sixth-form colleges. Larger trusts and local authorities receive School Condition Allocations instead, and a school gets one or the other, never both.

Project size

Primary and special schools can bid from £20,000. Secondary schools, all-through schools and sixth-form colleges can bid from £50,000. The ceiling is £4 million. The average condition award is around £500,000. Each school can submit up to two projects.

What gets funded first

Compliance and health and safety come first: fire protection, gas safety and electrical safety. Next come critical replacements of coal and oil boilers with low carbon heating where the school could otherwise close. Then weathertightness and keeping heating and water supplies running. On average only about a third of bids succeed.

Commercial heating and boiler replacement

Cost certainty

To score full marks on cost certainty, DfE expects at least three thorough, fixed-price tenders or quotes, with a firm commitment from each contractor to hold its price. A bid built on estimates scores low. We price CIF quotes to that standard.

Delivery deadlines

Most CIF 2027-28 projects must complete by 31 March 2028. Larger projects can run for up to two years but must finish by 31 March 2029. Heating and plant work is usually programmed into the summer holiday, so the order and lead times need fixing at bid stage, not after the award.

Chichester College: from CIF bid to delivered works

20+
Years at Chichester College Group
11
Campuses under one contract
48 hrs
140kW heat pump installed from stock
HVR 2025
Award for Innovative Project

Rossair supported Chichester College’s CIF bid and delivered the funded works. Chichester College is part of Chichester College Group, whose estate we have maintained for over 20 years, including Brinsbury, Haywards Heath, Worthing and Met College Brighton, under one PPM contract. That history matters for a bid: we know which plant is failing, what it has cost to keep running, and how to replace it around a live timetable. The 140kW heat pump installed from stock in 48 hours, and the 2025 HVR Award for Innovative Project, came out of the same relationship.

Compliance

What a CIF bid is assessed against

  • CIF 2027-28DfE’s information for applicants: eligibility, thresholds, scoring and the evidence each bid must include.
  • Condition surveyIndependent survey dated no earlier than 1 October 2023, graded A to D for condition and 1 to 4 for priority.
  • Options appraisalA costed options appraisal for the specific project is required in every application and is scored.
  • CDM 2015Construction (Design and Management) Regulations: client and principal designer duties, and the health and safety file at handover.
  • ProcurementTechnical advisers and contractors appointed through a compliant, documented process under the Academy Trust Handbook, with conflicts of interest declared.
  • DfE standardsReplacement heating designed to the DfE construction design standards, with energy use modelled for low carbon options.
Related education pages

More for school and college estates

Education estates hubHVAC maintenance, PPM and MEP work for schools, academies, colleges and universities.Decarbonisation and retrofitGas-to-electric heating and heat pump retrofits delivered on live campuses.Plant replacementBoiler, chiller and air handling unit replacement planned around occupancy.
Frequently asked

Questions about the Condition Improvement Fund

What is the Condition Improvement Fund?
The Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) is an annual capital bidding round run by the Department for Education. It funds projects that keep school and college buildings safe and in good working order, with the highest priority given to compliance and health and safety issues such as gas safety, electrical safety and fire protection. A small share of the fund also supports expansion projects. CIF is only available in England.
When is the CIF 2027-28 deadline?
Applications for CIF 2027-28 must be submitted, with all supporting documents, by 12 noon on 15 December 2026. Schools applying for the first time must register for a CIF portal account by 12 noon on 30 November 2026. DfE expects to announce outcomes in May 2027. Check GOV.UK for any changes before you submit.
Can a contractor write our CIF bid?
The bid has to be submitted by your accounting officer or senior management team, not by an adviser or contractor, and you stay responsible for it. Many schools use a technical adviser, whose fees DfE covers if the bid succeeds, provided the adviser was procured properly. A contractor can supply the costed options, fixed-price quote and programme the bid relies on, which is what Rossair does. The independent condition survey must come from a firm that is not quoting for the works, and any conflict of interest has to be declared.
How much CIF funding can a school get?
For CIF 2027-28, primary and special schools can bid for projects from £20,000, and secondary schools, all-through schools and sixth-form colleges from £50,000. The maximum is £4 million per project. The average award for condition projects is around £500,000, and bids over £1 million may get extra scrutiny.
Can CIF pay for a heat pump?
Yes, where the project addresses a genuine condition need. DfE gives priority to critical replacements of coal and oil boilers with low carbon heating where there is a risk of school closure. A low carbon heating bid needs a feasibility study covering running costs, building fabric, insulation and an electrical load assessment, because no extra funding is given if the project turns out to be undeliverable after approval. A hybrid system can be an interim step.
What happens if our CIF bid is not successful?
DfE runs an appeal window, expected to open in June 2027 for this round. Only around a third of bids succeed each year, so many schools resubmit a stronger bid the following year. Where plant failure threatens the closure of all or a large part of a school, eligible schools can apply for Urgent Capital Support at any time of year instead of waiting for the next round.
Is CIF being replaced?
Yes. The Education Estates Strategy, published in February 2026, confirmed a new programme will replace CIF by autumn 2028, so that eligible responsible bodies can access maintenance funding without submitting full bids. CIF 2027-28 runs as normal in the meantime.

If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you who is

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