The SEMS Annual Return is a new annual DfE return starting in September 2026. It asks responsible bodies a series of multiple-choice questions about how they are meeting the School Estate Management Standards.

The first return contains 28 questions across six sections. It is intended to provide both the organisation and DfE with a clearer picture of current estate management practice and areas where further support may be needed.

For the 2026 to 2027 academic year, DfE says submissions will open in the third week of September 2026, with the deadline in late November 2026.

DfE asks school responsible bodies that are eligible for annual DfE capital funding to submit the return. These include:

• local authorities
• sixth-form colleges
• multi-academy trusts
• single-academy trusts
• dioceses

Individual schools, nurseries and other education settings do not submit their own return.

DfE estimates that the return itself will take around one hour to complete.

However, the preparation can take considerably longer because the person completing it will need accurate information from across the organisation and, for multi-setting organisations, from individual schools and sites.

There are 28 questions across six sections:

• Strategic estate management: 6
• Planning and organising your estate resources: 11
• Understanding and managing your land and buildings: 7
• Maintaining your estate: 2
• Sustainability: 1
• Digital technology: 1

The questions have been published in advance by DfE so organisations can prepare.

No. The return consists of multiple-choice questions and DfE does not require supporting documents to be uploaded.

However, answers should be based on accurate information and evidence. For example, an organisation should be able to verify when a condition survey was completed or whether statutory compliance arrangements are genuinely in place rather than answering from assumption.

DfE states that the Annual Return will not affect the funding your organisation receives from DfE.

No. The most useful return is an accurate one.

If something is not in place, is incomplete or you genuinely do not know, the published return provides answers that allow you to say so. Identifying gaps gives the organisation a much more useful starting point for improvement than providing false assurance.

SEMS describes four levels of estate management:

Level 1: Baseline
The essentials organisations should have in place.

Level 2: Transitioning
Good estate management practices are developing.

Level 3: Fully effective
The elements needed for effective estate management are in place.

Level 4: Advanced
Additional advanced estate management practice.

DfE expects responsible bodies to work towards Level 3 where it is available, but does not expect everybody to have reached it already. Level 4 is not assessed through the Annual Return.

No. The levels available differ between areas of the standards.

For example, the Annual Return assesses Maintaining your estate against Levels 1 and 2 because there are no Level 3 criteria for that area. Sustainability and Digital Technology are assessed against Level 3 criteria. Level 4 is not assessed by the Annual Return.

No. It is a self-assessment return about estate management standards. It is not an independent audit and completion does not confirm that an organisation complies with every relevant statutory or legal requirement.

Some SEMS questions do, however, concern legal health and safety responsibilities, so organisations should ensure their answers are supported by appropriate evidence.

The return is completed through Manage your education estate, using DfE Sign-in.

The responsible body needs the appropriate organisation and service added to the submitter’s DfE Sign-in account. DfE recommends checking access before the submission window opens.

Yes. DfE says users can save their progress and review and change answers before the return is submitted.

After submission, the organisation can choose to view the levels of the standards it is meeting.

It can also tell DfE whether it agrees with the results, leave comments and identify barriers preventing it from meeting the standards, such as limited capacity, lack of data, difficulty obtaining specialist support or uncertainty about what is required.

This depends on how your school is organised.

For an academy, the academy trust is normally the responsible body. For maintained schools this will generally be the local authority. For voluntary-aided schools within a diocese, DfE states that the diocese completes and submits the return and seeks input from schools or governing bodies where required.

Your trust is the responsible body, so although there is only one school, the return is still submitted by the trust rather than by the school as a separate setting.

In practice, the people supplying the school-level information and the person coordinating the organisational return may work very closely together.

A significant amount of the information behind the return is held at school or site level.

This is likely to include:

• statutory compliance information
• condition survey information
• core estate records
• asset and building information
• contractor management arrangements
• maintenance and inspection arrangements
• the person responsible for estate management
• information about local emergency and continuity arrangements

Your responsible body may also ask you to confirm information that it holds centrally.

The Annual Return specifically asks whether the organisation holds:

• an asset register
• asbestos records, where applicable
• building layout plans
• energy consumption or CO₂ data
• energy cost information
• estate running costs
• tenure, lease or ownership information
• statutory compliance records
• sufficiency information, such as capacity and pupil numbers

A useful first step is to establish what you hold, whether it is current, where it is stored and who owns it.

The return asks whether systems are in place to ensure compliance with all legal health and safety requirements.

DfE specifically references health and safety law, asbestos regulations, legionella, gas safety, fire safety, statutory inspections and risk assessments. These are examples rather than a complete list of every duty that may apply to a particular school.

You do not necessarily need to move every document immediately. Start by creating a reliable compliance index or tracker showing what is required, the latest completion date, next due date, who is responsible, where the evidence is held and whether any actions are outstanding.

DfE’s GEMS resources include a compliance tracker that can help organisations structure this information.

A local condition survey is a survey commissioned by your school or responsible body. It is separate from DfE’s national Condition Data Collection programme.

DfE says responsible bodies should commission a comprehensive condition survey at least every five years, with more frequent surveys where concerns arise.

No.

Condition Data Collection, or CDC, is national DfE condition data. A local condition survey is commissioned by your own organisation and provides more detailed site-specific information to support maintenance, investment and asset management planning.

The Annual Return asks separately whether you use CDC information, whether you use local condition survey information, and whether settings have had a local survey within the last five years.

Tell your responsible body rather than guessing or presenting older information as current.

The Annual Return specifically asks whether settings have had local condition surveys in the last five years, and current DfE guidance recommends comprehensive surveys at least every five years.

Before appointing contractors, DfE expects organisations to establish that they are competent, insured, financially stable, suitably qualified and able to carry out the work safely and in accordance with legal requirements.

The important point is not simply that checks happen, but that there is a consistent process and evidence of what was checked.

Confirm which checks are completed centrally and what remains the school’s responsibility.

You may not need to duplicate checks already carried out by your responsible body, but the arrangements should be clear and the school should understand what information contractors need before starting work on its site.

Check it rather than guess.

The Annual Return contains a number of “I’m not sure” options for precisely this reason. At school level, an unknown answer should become an action: identify who should know, locate the evidence or flag the information gap to your responsible body.

This will vary by school, but information may sit across the headteacher or senior leadership team, school business professionals, premises or site staff, finance teams and governors.

Someone should coordinate the school’s contribution so that the responsible body receives one clear and consistent response rather than conflicting information from different people.

Start with the information that is hardest to reconstruct quickly:

1. establish who is coordinating the return
2. locate your current statutory compliance information
3. confirm the date and location of your latest condition survey
4. work through your core estate records
5. check how contractor due diligence is recorded
6. identify anything that is missing, outdated or uncertain

That is also the approach taken in NASPM’s school preparation guide and Priority Action Guide.

No. Individual schools do not submit the return and DfE does not require documents to be uploaded with it.

Your responsible body may, however, ask you for documents, dates or evidence so that it can answer the questions accurately.

That is positive, but verify the evidence behind your answers.

One of the risks with any self-assessment is assuming that a process is working because it has always been done that way. Check dates, records, ownership and outstanding actions before giving your responsible body assurance that something is in place.

The return must ultimately be submitted by someone in a senior estate management role.

That person does not need to personally know every answer. DfE allows organisations either to divide sections between different colleagues or for one senior person to complete the return after consulting others.

Yes. DfE explicitly allows different people to complete the sections relevant to their role.

For a larger organisation this is likely to be the most practical approach, provided there is clear central coordination and somebody quality assures the responses before submission.

This will depend on what is managed centrally, but the most important site-level information is likely to include:

• condition survey dates and information
• statutory compliance arrangements and records
• core estate information
• maintenance and inspection arrangements
• contractor management information
• site-level estate responsibilities
• gaps or uncertainties that cannot be answered centrally

The school-level information should then be reconciled with organisation-wide policies, systems and data.

Start by mapping all 28 questions against the people or teams best placed to answer them.

Then identify which answers require site-level information, issue a clear and consistent data request to schools, establish an internal deadline, resolve inconsistent responses and quality assure the final organisational answers before submission.

Do not assume that practice at one setting represents the whole organisation.

Some questions specifically distinguish between all settings, more than half, half or fewer, and zero settings. Other questions concern organisation-wide systems or processes. Use the wording and answer options in the published return to decide what evidence is required for each question.

The Annual Return asks whether all settings have had local condition surveys in the last five years.

Current DfE condition guidance says responsible bodies should commission a comprehensive condition survey at least every five years, with more frequent surveys where concerns arise.

The Annual Return asks separately about all three.

An estate vision is the high-level direction for the estate. The published question defines an estate strategy as outlining investment plans for the next three to five years. The asset management plan translates the strategy into prioritised actions, maintenance activity and estate data.

The Annual Return asks both whether the governing board has strategic oversight of the estate and whether it has access to estate management expertise.

That expertise may sit within the board or be obtained from external advisers, consultants or professional service providers.

The return asks whether your organisation has a named person responsible for estate management and what qualifications or experience they have.

The published options recognise both formal qualifications and practical estate management experience.

It asks whether the organisation has continuity plans and what they cover.

The answer options include cyber security incidents, estate-related emergencies such as fire or flood, climate change impacts, loss of critical utilities and relocation of pupils where required.

It asks whether the organisation confirms, before appointment, that contractors are competent, insured, financially stable, suitably qualified and able to carry out the work safely and in line with legal requirements.

There is also a separate procurement question covering value for money, supplier and contractor checks, documented procurement procedures and competitive quotes or tenders for significant work

The Annual Return asks about nine specific categories, including asset registers, asbestos information, building plans, energy information, running costs, tenure, statutory compliance and sufficiency information.

Wider GEMS guidance also identifies building areas, property condition and other core estate data needed for effective management.

The Annual Return provides a specific answer for organisations with no asbestos records because the whole estate was built after 2000.

That option should therefore only be selected where the construction position supports it, rather than simply because asbestos records cannot be found.

Yes. It asks whether the organisation is a member of DfE’s Risk Protection Arrangement or has appropriate commercial insurance.

DfE says appropriate commercial insurance would typically include buildings, employer and public liability cover and other significant risks relevant to the organisation’s activities.

The strategic section asks about climate action plans and climate goals, while the Sustainability section asks whether the organisation has a nominated sustainability lead.

The Annual Return assesses Sustainability against the Level 3 criteria because there are no Level 1 or Level 2 criteria for this area.

The return asks whether estate planning decisions include digital infrastructure such as servers, network switching, cabling, Wi-Fi, broadband, CCTV, access control and telecoms equipment.

It also separately asks which digital building management systems are used to manage buildings, assets and maintenance information.

Before the submission window opens, make sure the proposed submitter:

1. has a DfE Sign-in account
2. has the responsible body added to that account
3. has the Manage your education estate service added to the organisation
4. can access the service successfully

DfE specifically encourages responsible bodies to check access in advance.

After submission, organisations can choose to view the levels generated from their answers and can tell DfE whether they agree or disagree.

They can also leave comments and explain what is preventing them from meeting particular standards.

DfE says organisations that cannot complete the Annual Return by the due date should raise a DfE service query.