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What makes a successful CIF funding application?
Updated for 2021/22 Outcomes.
Eddisons have analysed the Government data to identify the trends in successful CIF applications.
See the locations, stages of education and even the words used in successful bids.
We analysed the government’s CIF Outcomes data to see what we could learn about the most successful CIF funding applications.
Eddisons has worked on Condition Improvement Funding with schools, academies and sixth-form colleges across the UK. We’re dedicated to helping schools find the best way possible to secure funding for their capital projects. With this in mind, we’ve analysed the CIF outcomes data to identify the trends in successful applications. Find out more about our CIF services >
We found three key trends: 1) Local education authority, with some authorities securing ten times more projects than average. 2) Level of Education; showing that Primary schools make up more than half of all successful applications. 3) Types of work, which also showed us other words that commonly occurred.
Insights: What bid elements did we look at?
Local Education Authorities
Which LEAs have the most successful CIF bids?
We wanted to know if the local area, or more specifically the Education Authority had an impact on CIF applications. We know there probably too many factors to calculate a precise figure; it would need to take into consideration population density, number of institutions, other sources of funding and historic centralised and decentralised funding; so we’ve used some simple metrics to highlight trends in the data. Most notably we can see that just 3% of local authorities make up almost 15% of all successful projects. The top performing authority (Maidenhead) has more than double the number of successful bids than the average LEA.
The 20 LEAs with the most successful CIF Applications
South Leicestershire Local Education Authority tops the table with 18 successful applications for Condition Improvement Funding.
| LEAs with the most successful bids | Projects |
Compared to average
|
| Maidenhead | 15 | 221% |
| Camborne and Redruth | 14 | 206% |
| West Worcestershire | 11 | 162% |
| Plymouth, Moor View | 11 | 162% |
| North West Leicestershire | 11 | 162% |
| Hornchurch and Upminster | 11 | 162% |
| Chesham and Amersham | 11 | 162% |
| Bromley and Chislehurst | 11 | 162% |
| Ashton-under-Lyne | 11 | 162% |
| West Ham | 10 | 147% |
| Gainsborough | 10 | 147% |
| Bedford | 10 | 147% |
| Ashford | 10 | 147% |
| Stratford-on-Avon | 9 | 132% |
| Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport | 9 | 132% |
| North Cornwall | 9 | 132% |
| Macclesfield | 9 | 132% |
| Leicester South | 9 | 132% |
| Ipswich | 9 | 132% |
| Harlow | 9 | 132% |
Primary, Secondary or Sixth Form
Which stage of education has the most successful CIF bids?
We know that secondary schools tend to be larger builders with a bigger cohort and so we might expect to see those buildings need more maintenance. Every school is different, so it’s hard to say who needs more funding but we can see very clearly who gets more funding. Primary is still getting more than half, but has dropped by a 2%. Some of that has gone to sixth form colleges which have increase from 1% of successful applications to 2%.
Successful CIF applications categorised by educational stage.
Primary Education accounted for more than 57% of successful Condition Improvement Funding applications. A distant second was Secondary education at 32%.
| Phase of Education | No. of Projects | Percentage of all projects |
| SFC | 24 | 2% |
| Secondary | 558 | 38% |
| Primary | 805 | 55% |
| Not applicable | 74 | 5% |
| All-through | 15 | 1% |
| Grand Total | 1476 | 100% |
Types of Work
What type of works are the most commonly approved CIF applications?
The heart of condition improvement is warm, dry and safe; so we know we’re going to see lots of mentions of projects like heating, roofs, windows and fencing. However, we are surveyors at heart, so we measure rather than guess. This has not only shown the types of projects but also the types of words people use.
The words most likely to appear in a successful CIF application
We used software to search for the most commonly used words in successful application titles. We included connected words so ‘Roof’ also includes ‘Roofs’ and ‘Roofing’. This highlighted the most popular types of work but it also showed with adjectives came top. Whilst ‘Urgent’ and ‘Safety’ appeared in the top five, ‘Critical’ didn’t make it into the top twenty.
| Word | Word Count | Percentage of Bids |
| Roof | 348 | 24% |
| Fire | 299 | 20% |
| Safety | 227 | 15% |
| Urgent | 218 | 15% |
| Heat | 169 | 11% |
| Boiler | 147 | 10% |
| Safeguard | 129 | 9% |
| Compliance | 96 | 7% |
| Electric | 77 | 5% |
| Refurbishment | 76 | 5% |
| Build | 59 | 4% |
| Alarm | 53 | 4% |
| Repair | 44 | 3% |
| Windows | 43 | 3% |
| Security | 41 | 3% |
| Essential | 32 | 2% |
| Light | 32 | 2% |
| Asbestos | 28 | 2% |
| Toilet | 15 | 1% |
| Kitchen | 13 | 1% |
| Drainage | 12 | 1% |
| Critical | 12 | 1% |
We can help with your CIF application
We offer no-fee support to all schools in England. Ask for our no obligation advice on successful CIF applications.
We offer free CIF application advice, we write bids free of charge and also offer current condition surveys.
If you need help with your condition improvement funding or have some questions about our service, tell us a little about your application and we’ll get back to you shortly.
