The Further Education Capital Transformation Fund (FECTF) is an annual Government capital fund granted to tackle ‘unsatisfactory’ estate condition within further education (FE) colleges and institutions.

The fund has been set up as part of the UK Government’s broader £1.5 billion pledge to improving FE institutions. The fund has been set up predominantly to address condition improvements such as walls, roofs and electrical services. In exceptional circumstances, the fund may also be used for certain remodelling, expansion and demolition projects.

FECTF funding has been set up bring about significant condition improvements and is therefore solely eligible for projects with a minimum value of £500,000 to ensure focus is retained on strategic schemes.

FE institutions are also expected to contribute towards the project themselves (through commercial loans, an institution’s own reserves, corporate donations, etc.) with maximum contributions equivalent to 50% of a project’s value.

Applications are carried out in two stages:

Stage 1

Assessment of an application’s overall eligibility. Stage 1 applications must show evidence of meeting certain qualification criteria that include:

  • Evidence of condition
  • Indicative project costs
  • Evidence supporting efficient use of existing space
  • Provision of high-level project plan (including key touchpoints and dates).

Stage 2

Successful stage 1 applicants are subsequently requested to submit a stage 2 application in which a project’s overall robustness and deliverability is assessed. Further evidence requested might include more detailed costings, risk management procedures and overall suitability.

As a practice, Munday + Cramer has successfully secured bid applications across a whole host of grants and funds, including the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), Salix Funding and Locally Co-ordinated Voluntary Programme (LCVAP) Funding.

Important Dates

  • Stage 1 application deadline: 15th March 2021 (11:59 PM)
  • Stage 1 outcome notifications: 14th May 2021
  • Stage 2 application deadline: 30th July 2021 (11:59 PM)
  • Stage 2 outcome notifications: W/C: 27th September 2021

We can either oversee your entire bid application from scratch or review and enhance existing applications.