Commenting on guidance published today by the Department for Education concerning buildings with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“It is absolutely disgraceful - and a sign of gross Government incompetence - that a few days before the start of term, 104 schools are finding out that some or all of their buildings are unsafe and cannot be used. To add insult to injury the Government states in its guidance (1) that it will not be covering the costs of emergency temporary accommodation or additional transport. The Government is therefore expecting schools to pay the additional costs of its own shocking neglect of school buildings. This is not made clear in the Government announcement, meaning that school leaders are likely to be misled about the full costs to their budget.
“This situation will cause massive disruption to the education of thousands of children and huge inconvenience to school leaders. The blame of course lies firmly with this Government whose perpetual lack of investment in school buildings has left our school estate in such a dire state of disrepair. For months the NEU has been pressing the Government to publish a full list of schools with buildings at risk of collapse, but this has not happened.
“We are not confident that the Government has a proper plan to address this immediate issue with the urgency it requires, let alone the wider issue of capital funding to ensure school buildings are fit for the future. There are 156 schools with confirmed RAAC but how many more where it has not yet been identified?”
Editor’s Note
See p. 7 under the heading Funding.
DfE Guidance for Schools Impacted by RAAC
Published:
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