The latest round of the Department for Education’s Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for 2021/22 has been announced. This year, a total of £483 million has been awarded for projects at 1,199 academy and non-diocesan voluntary aided schools in England. Unfortunately, as with every round of funding, there will be those schools that missed out and had their bids rejected.
If you have been left disappointed that your school wasn’t awarded funding, you will be keen to know if there is any way to appeal the decision.
Lea Hough are able to offer a free audit of the bid that was submitted for the 2021/22 CIF round.
In some cases, where applicants can demonstrate that a material error has been made in the assessment of their application, it may be possible to have your bid reviewed. The number of projects that win funding through appeal is notoriously very low and the DfE will only reverse their decision where an error in their process can be proven. The window to appeal a decision is very narrow, with schools only having until 9th July to appeal bids for the 2021/22 round.
Unfortunately, outside of these circumstances, there is likely little chance of having your application reviewed in this current funding round.
However, this doesn’t mean that all is lost and there may be a way to move forward with the bid for future rounds or funding streams.
Lea Hough’s school building consultants are working within the education sector on a continual basis and have knowledge of the various funding streams and rounds that are available or are coming down the track. Having reviewed the bid that was put forward for 2021/22, or any previous bids that may have been submitted, we might identify areas of the application that could be improved upon in future CIF bidding rounds.
Alternatively, we may identify that there is another source of funding for which it may be possible to apply.
Please contact Lea Hough to discuss having your application for CIF 2021/22 reviewed. This process is undertaken by our school building consultants on a free of charge basis.
