The relational estate
“A leaky roof damages a classroom; a broken relationship damages a child”
by James Townsend
Executive Director
The Reach Foundation
Every trust CEO knows the specific anxiety of a leaking roof.
We spend millions of pounds maintaining our physical estate. We have condition surveys, capital allocation budgets, and asset management plans. We do this because we understand the high cost of neglect. We know that if we ignore a crack in the wall today, the ceiling will eventually come down on us tomorrow.
Trusts and local authorities receive funding to maintain their estates through “school condition funding.” The DfE’s approach to capital allocations funding ‘recognises the need for capital investment to keep buildings in good condition.’ Funding has to be used to ensure that buildings are ‘safe and in good working order.’
Recognising that buildings need to be proactively maintained (not just repaired when there is a problem), the responsible bodies receiving the funding are expected to spend the money each year.
But what about the invisible infrastructure?
Just as a school relies on safe buildings, it relies on a web of trust between families, services, and the community. Yet, while we systematise the maintenance of our boilers and windows, we often leave the maintenance of our relationships to chance.
It is time to take our "relational estate" as seriously as our physical one.
The relational asset management plan
Imagine a world where trusts were required to invest in their relationships with the same rigour they apply to their buildings.
In this world, a responsible CEO would not just have a strategy for "estates"; they would have a "Relational Asset Management Plan". This plan would identify the key "load-bearing" relationships in the local system—the connection with the local authority, the trust between reception staff and parents, the partnership with local health visitors.
It would help leaders prioritise where to spend their time. Just as we prioritise a broken boiler over a lick of paint, we would prioritise repairing a fractured relationship with a local community group over a generic newsletter.
The "condition survey"
How do we know when the infrastructure is crumbling? We need "Relational Condition Surveys.”
In the physical world, a surveyor spots damp before it becomes mould. In the relational world, we need to spot the drift before it becomes a breakdown. A "Red" rating on your relational estate isn't a broken window; it is a relationship with Social Care that only exists when you are making a referral.
“Relational Condition Surveys” would highlight where there was urgent need to strengthen or repair bits of connective tissue, and “prioritised programmes of maintenance” would ensure that all relationships were tended to so that nothing and no-one was taken for granted.
A relational condition survey might ask:
How often have you met with local headteachers outside of your phase/trust this year?
Have you connected to social care colleagues this term other than during a crisis?
Do all your staff introduce themselves properly by name at the start of meetings?
That final question sounds small, but it is structural. As Atul Gawande describes in The Checklist Manifesto, when surgical teams introduce themselves by name before surgery, complications and deaths fall by up to 35%!
And there are many other examples of small tweaks to how we work that can, if sustained over time, ensure that relationships are maintained and strengthened. Just this week I have heard from partners about the positive impact of teachers introducing themselves to parents by first name when phoning home, of head teachers regularly dropping into local institutions, and of local employers being invited regularly into schools.
Preventative maintenance
This is the work of preventative maintenance.
It is not about grand gestures. It is about the small tweaks which, sustained over time, ensure the structure holds.
It is the teacher picking up the phone to share good news, ensuring the "bank account" of trust is full before a withdrawal is needed. It is the headteacher dropping into a local community centre just to say hello, rather than waiting until they need a favour. It is inviting local employers into the school regularly, not just for the annual careers fair.
The cost of neglect
We would never let a school roof collapse because we "didn't have time" to fix it. We need to treat the collapse of trust in our community with the same urgency.
If we systematise the maintenance of our relational infrastructure, we save the time and money currently wasted on costly repairs. But more importantly, we ensure the environment is safe for our students.
A leaky roof damages a classroom; a broken relationship damages a child.
