Furniture and equipment for integrated schools

The Ministry provides boards of trustees of integrated schools with a furniture and equipment grant which is comparable to state schools. Boards of trustees use this funding to purchase and own their furniture and equipment.

• Funding for replacement and for new square metres
• Purchasing furniture and equipment
• Annual furniture and equipment
• New square metres furniture and equipment
• All-of-government (AoG) procurement for schools

Funding for replacement and for new square metres

The Ministry provides furniture and equipment funding to state integrated schools by way of:

1. an annual furniture and equipment grant to replace and modernise existing furniture and equipment
2. new square metres furniture and equipment funding, when certain criteria are met, to provide furniture and equipment for new spaces (roll growth teaching spaces and new schools).

Purchasing furniture and equipment

The board must purchase the furniture and equipment, and then:

• owns the equipment
• must record it in the school accounting system
• is responsible for insuring it as part of their contents insurance.

Annual furniture and equipment

The annual grant is paid on 1 July and is to be used to replace and modernise existing furniture and equipment at state integrated schools.

Calculating annual furniture and equipment funding

Annual furniture and equipment is calculated as a fixed percentage of up to 5% of the proprietor’s Policy One budget. The percentage amount depends on the school type.

Policy One funding for capital work at integrated schools

Funding rates for different types of schools

New square metres furniture and equipment

The Ministry provides boards of state integrated schools with furniture and equipment funding for eligible new square metres up to their School Property Guide (SPG) entitlement. New square metres over the SPG entitlement don’t qualify for this funding.

The funding for new square metres is based on net square metres. It doesn't include:

• corridors
• circulation space
• toilets, and so on.

Proprietors submit a claim and the Ministry pays the funding to the board of trustees. The funding is to furnish new rooms with furniture and equipment appropriate for the room’s use.

Areas that don't qualify for new square metre funding

New square metre projects that don't qualify for furniture and equipment funding are those that:

• provide facilities for the first time at a school within existing floor space, such as a building conversion
• build new facilities with annual furniture and equipment funding — in this case, the annual furniture and equipment rate applies.

Rates for new square metre funding for furniture and equipment

The rates for new square metre funding for furniture and equipment are:

• regular net area rate — $125 per square metre.
• specialist net area rate — $380 per square metre.

The specialist net area rate is based on an average of all types of spaces. Fitting out some spaces, such as a hard materials workshop, might cost more than this rate but the costs will average out over time.

Receiving new square metre funding for furniture and equipment

Once a construction contract is let, the board must send an invoice to its proprietor for checking who then forwards it to the Ministry for payment.

We pay the invoices to the board each quarter on the first working day of:

• January
• April
• July
• October.

The proprietor must send the invoices to the Ministry at least 6 weeks before these payment dates.

The table below sets out the steps and rules for calculating and claiming furniture and equipment funding for a new square metre project.

All-of-government (AoG) procurement for schools

Boards may be able to make significant savings when purchasing equipment for their schools through the all-of-government contracts.

New Zealand Government Procurement website(external link)

Last reviewed: 15 October 2020 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback