Fears that cash earmarked to fix a wider problem of asbestos and unsafe cladding-ridden schools will be diverted have been raised by trusts and heads’ leaders as the government scrambles to fix the concrete crisis.
Leaders are raising the alarm that many more schools could be unsafe than those with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) - and they fear the already very limited pot of capital funding allocated to fix them will now get sucked into risky concrete repairs.
One senior executive at a multi-academy trust told Tes: ”RAAC is in the headlines but there are far more schools that have got things like cladding issues and asbestos.
“We’ve got a school with concrete cladding at risk of falling away and we’ve had to close the affected area to make it safe.
“It’s cost thousands [of pounds] for a temporary solution and will cost several million to reclad it properly.
“The same kind of buildings will be very prevalent and they’re hiding a lot of risk and costs.”
The senior MAT executive added that the “backlog” in terms of repairs is set to cost double the annual capital funding their trust gets.
“I just feel stuck in this cycle. We’re just patching and mending constantly. The money that’s going to be channelled into RAAC could come from other capital budgets and that’s really worrying.”
‘A long list of concerns’
One MAT CEO told Tes: ”There’s a lot being ignored on cladding issues and asbestos. The work schools are doing on energy is uncovering issues with rooves.
“We’re all worried that our issues are going to get lost and we’re not going to get the resources we need to fix them.”
Another CEO of a large trust said: ”RAAC’s just at the top of a long list of concerns about estates. What’s going to happen to the schools that are currently on the list to be rebuilt, for instance?
“These are schools that are well beyond their shelf life and in dire need of being rebuilt.
“The government can’t kick that can down the road in the way they have with RAAC; the Treasury is going to have to come up with the goods and open up the coffers. This isn’t going away.”
Writing for Tes, Confederation of School Trusts CEO Leora Cruddas has urged the government to make a proper long-term plan for how to deal with all the issues school buildings are facing.
She said: “Once the immediate risks are mitigated, the government needs to engage with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive plan to secure the future of the school estate.
“This plan should include a timeline for the removal or refurbishment of RAAC in schools but should go further to address long-term reinvestment to fix the range of problems that plague too many school buildings.”
Dealing with RAAC and asbestos
The Scalby School in Scarborough was one of the 147 schools named by the Department for Education as having confirmed RAAC on Wednesday. The secondary had to delay reopening and is now operating a mix of remote and face-to-face education while it scrambles to get mitigating measures in place.
It emerged yesterday that the school had applied for the school rebuilding programme (SRP) in 2022 for other work they needed to do, but its bid for extra funding to rebuild and repair was rejected.
Michael McCluskie, director of learning at the Coast and Vale Learning Trust - of which Scalby School is part - voiced his concern about the asbestos the school has on site. It doesn’t currently present a risk as it is sealed off and being monitored, but he warned that such efforts could be undermined by work to mitigate the RAAC the school has.
“The concern is that as they do this remedial work, we will find other issues,” he said. “It’s going to delay work because any asbestos will need to be sorted first.”
The scale of the problem
Well over a third (37 per cent) of governors have said their school buildings were not in good condition, according to a recent survey by the National Governance Association.
And the National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report this summer that around “700,000 pupils are learning in a school that the responsible body or DfE believes needs major rebuilding or refurbishment” after “years of underinvestment”.
A NEU survey of 19,000 schools in 2019 found that around four in five said they had asbestos somewhere on the site.
Meanwhile, DfE chief operating officer Jane Cunliffe told a Commons Public Accounts Committee hearing in July that 67 of the 400 schools in the SRP had asbestos in them.
The Health and Safety Executive began inspecting schools for asbestos a year ago.
‘A dilapidated state’
Headteachers’ leaders have also called for the government to urgently invest in school buildings, and said the crisis exposes a need for a proactive school rebuilding strategy.
The Association of School and College Leaders’ funding specialist Julia Harnden said there’s an £11.4 billion backlog of repairs and remedial work required for the school estate.
”This neglect has forced many schools to teach children in buildings that need to be refurbished or replaced, while having to negotiate a convoluted funding system in the hope of being able to finance the work required for basic safety measures,” she said.
She added that heads need “clear assurances that work being carried out to mitigate the risks posed by RAAC will not reduce the amount of funding available for repairs elsewhere”.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said: “Asbestos and cladding are already well-known issues, and there are many schools that have problems that need money to address, such as rooves that need repairing, or leaks and water damage.
“The general wear and tear on the school estate has not been kept up with, resulting in children learning in classrooms that are unsuitable and sometimes even dangerous.
“At the current rate, it will take decades to get through even the most urgent claims. The government urgently needs to look again at their approach to the school estate. We need a proactive rather than reactive approach to avoid crises such as we are now seeing with RAAC concrete.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
“Nothing is more important than the safety of pupils and teachers which is why we have been significantly investing in transforming schools up and down the country.
“This Government has prioritised building more schools and has invested the highest cash figure in a decade into our overall school condition funding, worth a total of £2.7bn last year. This includes delivering over 500 schools across the country through the School Rebuilding Programme, on top of 520 schools already delivered since 2015 under the Priority Schools Building Programme.
“The National Audit Office (NAO) found this year that the department had improved its understanding of the general condition of school buildings, helping us allocate funding for rebuilding based on better estimates and target schools assessed to be in the poorest condition.”
