Top 5 Operational Focuses for School and MAT Leaders This Autumn

By Laura Callingham, Schools Mentor at iAM Compliant

September in a school or trust is unlike anywhere else in the working world. Within hours of term starting, leaders find themselves balancing new pupil intakes, staffing changes, premises queries, and contractor invoices. In this early autumn whirlwind, statutory compliance and estates management can quickly feel like reactive firefighting.

As a Schools Mentor at iAM Compliant, I work with school and trust teams to help cut through that noise and establish calm, repeatable routines. I’ve spent over seven years leading operations and health and safety across an eight-site primary MAT and an infant and junior federation, so I know the September scramble well.

Here are five practical priorities to focus on during the opening weeks of term to eliminate blind spots and set your estate up for a resilient academic year.

1. Post-Summer Works Handover Audit

Two weeks into term, the physical dust has settled, but hidden contractor liabilities can quickly surface. As finance teams face pressure to approve final invoices and release retentions, never sign off works on assumption.

• Audit Critical Handover Records: Chase down all operation and maintenance (O&M) manuals, commissioning certificates, and warranties before finance issues final payments.
• Update Statutory Risk Registers: If summer works altered layouts or penetrated walls, update your asbestos management plan and fire risk assessment immediately.
• Log Occupancy Snags: Reconcile early staff reports on issues like faulty door closers or heating controls with your site team before defects liability periods lapse.

2. Standardising Site Protocols Across Trust and Federation Buildings

Operational silos are a significant liability for expanding Multi-Academy Trusts and federations. When one school tracks compliance on a personal spreadsheet, and another uses paper files on a shelf, trust leaders are managing blind.

• Adopt Single-Source Templates: Standardise daily opening and closing checks, accident reporting, contractor inductions, and statutory risk assessments across every school.
• Remove Single Points of Failure: Ensure caretakers and premises staff can step into any school plant room across the trust and navigate records instantly because records follow a consistent format and site-specific information is easy to find.
• Establish Central Visibility: Ensure operations leads and trust boards have real-time visibility of statutory testing dates and overdue actions without chasing manual updates.

3. Term-Time Evacuation Plan Audits and Day-One PEEPs

Evacuation plans drawn up before the holidays quickly become obsolete once the autumn timetable begins. Room reallocations, furniture shifts, and staffing changes directly affect your fire risk arrangements.

• Audit Timetable Routes: Walk designated escape routes during busy lesson changes to ensure corridors and fire exits aren't blocked by new deliveries or coat racks.
• Implement Day-One PEEPs: Ensure every newly enrolled pupil or staff member with mobility, sensory, neurodivergent, or other medical or support needs has an individual Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan in place from their first day.
• Reconcile Roster Allocations: Check your list of fire wardens, sweepers, and first aiders against current staff timetables and room locations to avoid vacant posts.

4. Supply Staff and Temporary Cover Safety Briefings

Autumn recruitment pressures mean schools rely heavily on supply teachers, cover supervisors, and interim catering teams. In the morning rush, safety inductions are frequently reduced to a quick handshake and a site map.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers have an explicit statutory duty to provide role-relevant safety details to temporary personnel before work starts.

Supply staff don’t need a lengthy policy manual; they need a focused briefing tailored to their role, which might only be 10 minutes in some cases, covering:

• Alarm Distinctions: The difference between the fire alarm and the school lockdown signal.
• Emergency Contacts: Direct extension numbers for reception, the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), the duty first aider, and the site manager.
• Room Hazards: Location-specific risks such as gas shut-offs in science labs, workshop isolation switches, and wet play supervision areas.

5. Autumn SEMS Gap Analysis: Establishing an Operational Baseline

The Department for Education (DfE) School Estate Management Standards (SEMS) self-assessment returns open this autumn. For school and trust leaders, the immediate priority is conducting an early autumn self-assessment against SEMS to establish an operational baseline, identify estate risks, and feed reliable data into trust board reporting before winter.

If you want to dig deeper into the specific tiers, data points, and statutory requirements, our CEO Luke Pargeter has broken down everything you need to know in his guide: Demystifying SEMS: What the School Estates Management Standard Actually Means For Your School or Trust.

You can also explore our Demystifying Compliance Hub, where our experts unravel the Department for Education's 2026 Education Estates Strategy. This 10-year plan is backed by £38 billion in education capital investment between 2025-26 and 2029-30. It’s also full of digital standards that can feel daunting to navigate; we can help.

Steady Habits, Calm Leadership

Operational excellence is not built through stressful, reactive fixes in December. It’s created quietly through steady, repeatable routines established in the opening weeks of term.

By auditing handover works, standardising multi-site procedures, updating evacuation plans, briefing temporary staff, and establishing your SEMS baseline, you protect your school community and give your team the space to focus on outstanding education.

About the Author

Laura Callingham is a Schools Mentor at iAM Compliant. She brings over seven years of operational and health and safety leadership experience across Multi-Academy Trusts and federations, holding NEBOSH, IOSH, and ILM qualifications