Condition Improvement Fund eligibility.

Who is in scope

Single-academy trusts, small multi-academy trusts (fewer than 5 schools and fewer than 3,000 pupils), sixth-form colleges, and voluntary-aided diocesan bodies are all in scope. Free schools and University Technical Colleges are in scope on the same terms as academies, subject to the conversion-date cut-off.

The applicant body is the entity that signs the funding agreement. For a small MAT this is the trust; for a VA school this is the diocese or non-diocesan VA body.

What disqualifies a trust

Receipt of School Condition Allocation disqualifies the trust from CIF for the schools to which the SCA applies. A trust may have schools in both regimes if they are funded under different structures, but no single school can claim both for the same scope of works.

Schools currently in the School Rebuilding Programme cannot bid for CIF on works already covered by their SRP nomination.

The decision tree in practice

The decision tree below walks the four eligibility gates in the order ESFA applies them. It is not authoritative; the ESFA Information for Applicants 2026-27 is the source of truth. Use the tree to flag bids that should be reviewed further before survey work is commissioned.

Evidence ESFA uses to verify

ESFA verifies eligibility against the published academies list, the SCA recipient list, and the SRP schedule. Trust DfE numbers and UPNs are cross-referenced. Where eligibility is contested, the appeals route applies.