9 January 2025
Future-proofing community-owned buildings: DTAS Facilities Management Service.
Elaine Gibb
Key learnings:
- For community groups and charities taking on land or buildings, securing ownership and renovating are major milestones, but ongoing management is critical to long-term success.
- Specialist support can be vital to help them navigate challenges around regulations and maintenance.
- Peer learning shared between community groups and through network organisations helps build expertise in managing assets like these.
- Tailored tools and guidance are continuously developing to ensure community-owned assets are successful and sustainable into the future.
Forgan Arts Centre, a community-led hub for creative activity and learning in Fife, achieved a major milestone in 2022 when it acquired the historic Leng Home estate via Community Asset Transfer. Moving into this expansive three-story building and its surrounding three-acre estate was a transformative step – but also a challenging one.
The transition to managing a significantly larger space brought with it new responsibilities in facilities management, operations, and health and safety. Recognising the complexity of these tasks, Forgan Arts Centre turned to the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) for support.
“Through their Facilities Management advice service, DTAS took time to check all areas of servicing, certification, maintenance, and compliance,” says Jen White, the Director at Forgan Arts. “They gave us great advice for making things run as smoothly as possible, and they connected us to other sources of support and funding.”
The devil is in the detail in more ways than one at Forgan Arts!
Photographer David P Scott
Across the country, communities are stepping up to preserve and manage local buildings, greenspaces, and land. While these assets can deliver significant opportunities and benefits, the reality of running them effectively – ensuring they remain fit for purpose, financially sustainable, and future-proofed – is a complex, long-term challenge.
Securing ownership and completing renovations are major achievements, but the ongoing task of managing community buildings and heritage assets can be equally, if not more, demanding. And operating a building and delivering services also requires different skills and expertise. Without the know-how to manage them effectively, heritage buildings risk becoming financial burdens rather than community assets.
That’s where DTAS steps in.
Supporting communities after they get the keys
Since 2003, DTAS has empowered communities across Scotland to improve their local areas. Recognising the need for ongoing support “beyond the (re)build,” DTAS launched a pilot Facilities Management programme in 2022. The response was overwhelming: in just two years, 75 groups (spanning nearly 70% of Scotland’s local authority areas) received direct support from a specialist Facilities Management Advisor. A further 60 organisations have been supported in the past year.
The programme provided guidance on managing a diverse range of community assets, from village halls and shops to housing and marinas. Support covered essential areas like compliance and building maintenance. It developed to also address emerging priorities like reducing carbon footprints and net-zero planning. Peer learning is a key component, enabling communities to share their experiences – both successes and challenges – while building collective expertise.
Building for the future
Now in its third year, DTAS continues to refine its approach, offering tailored training tools and comprehensive guidance* to help communities manage their assets confidently. Their aspiration? A Scotland where every community-owned asset has its own tailored facilities management handbook.
Linda Gillespie from DTAS sums up the importance of this work:
“Our ambition is to combat the risk of communities struggling over time to maintain their buildings and services. By equipping them with the tools they need, we’re helping ensure these assets don’t become millstones, but instead remain sources of pride, opportunity, and long-term success.”
For organisations like Forgan Arts Centre, this support has already made a significant difference.
The Foundation is pleased to support DTAS’s Facilities Management advice service through our Natural and Built Environment strand. Working alongside funded partners such as DTAS, we aim to support communities to preserve Scotland’s local heritage buildings and spaces, ensuring they thrive for generations to come. We have also recently developed a relationship with Forgan Arts Centre via our Scottish Culture and Heritage strand and we are excited to follow their progress at the Leng Home estate.
* DTAS have collated helpful materials on Facilities Management on the Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) website.
