National condition assessment programme

The Ministry has started a national programme to assess the condition of all state schools. These assessments are being undertaken region by region beginning in Wellington (April 2012) and Auckland (June 2012). They are due for completion by the end of November 2013.

If your school already has a condition assessment report completed using the MPlan tool, the information from the national programme will be used to verify your report and to incorporate any additional information relating to earthquake structural advice, weather-tightness assessments and other property related issues.

The national programme assessments will be funded by the Ministry and will be carried out in accordance with the Ministry’s building condition assessment policy.

Questions and answers

What is the purpose of the national condition assessment programme?

The programme will capture condition assessment data and associated costs in electronic form, including ten year maintenance liabilities and normal lifecycle replacement and costs associated with earthquake and weather-tightness issues for schools. This data will be used to inform the longer term strategy for capital investment across the portfolio.

Will it include all primary and secondary schools in New Zealand?

All state primary and secondary schools in the Ministry’s portfolio will be assessed as part of the national programme apart from closed schools or schools in-disposal.

How will it work in conjunction with the priority list that the Ministry is establishing for earthquake prone buildings? Is this list finished?

Assessments are being completed by region and prioritised in terms of schools suspected of having weather-tightness or earthquake prone buildings. The Ministry’s earthquake prone buildings list is currently in draft form and the national assessments will inform this priority list.