Opinion

Crumbling concrete: The tip of a 440-year iceberg

Facilities School finance Government policy
Schools await clarity about the RAAC crisis. Not to mention a proper long-term investment plan for the school estate. But based on current progress, we will be waiting a long time says Paul Whiteman
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It was a start of term like no other for scores of school leaders when suddenly children’s return to school was thrown into turmoil by the crumbly concrete crisis.

By September 14, the last date for which figures are available, 174 schools (DfE, 2023) had been left with no option but to prevent access to areas affected by RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete).

The number is likely to grow with every week that passes. Years of neglect and underfunding have brought some parts of the school estate to, literally, the point of collapse without warning.

The experience of the pandemic means schools are no strangers to dealing with the unexpected and to working above and beyond to minimise the impact upon pupils.

But the frustration for school leaders and my association is that this could have been avoided. And we still have a number of unanswered questions about the government’s response and how long it will take to put this right.

We need to see some light at the end of the tunnel, because inevitably there has been disruption for children who are being taught online or in unfamiliar spaces, some temporary, some even off site, as well as at the handful of schools which had to delay the start of term.

Ultimately, there are limits to school leaders’ ability to cover for more than a decade of government neglect of school buildings.

This isn’t a crisis that has arisen overnight. While the roots of the problem go back decades, the government decision to halve funding for rebuilding and refurbishment projects in real-terms between 2010 and 2022 (Danechi & Long, 2023) has made things a whole lot worse.

Just 50 schools a year now benefit. That is despite Jonathan Slater, permanent secretary at the DfE for four years until August 2020, revealing to the media this month that the department had assessed that 300 to 400 schools needed to be rebuilt each year.

At the current rate it would take around 440 years to reach every school. This would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so serious.

Following surveys from 2017 to 2019 (DfE, 2021), and a school ceiling collapse in 2018, the government upgraded the risk of school buildings near the end of their lives collapsing to “critical” two years ago.

And RAAC is just one symptom of the far wider and systemic issue of a disintegrating school estate, with other issues ranging from leaky roofs to asbestos.

We and others have repeatedly sounded the alarm and demanded action. But ministers showed a complete lack of urgency in their response.

While the government cannot turn back the clock, it can do the right things here and now. But Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, hasn’t got off to the best start.

Just last week, she suggested in the House of Commons that some children preferred portable cabins to their usual classrooms, a damning indictment of government neglect of the school estate.

She also angered school leaders by attempting to blame schools for not completing a government survey on RAAC which actually went out last year to responsible bodies including local authorities and multi-academy trusts. Some of them had in fact responded, and the response rate now stands at 98.6%. The government cannot dodge its responsibility for ensuring a safe, fit-for-purpose, school estate.

Education unions and school leaders around the country are still awaiting clarity on a number of important issues around support to identify RAAC, funding, risk management and the sheer scale of the problem.

School staff are not structural engineers and have no expertise in this area. RAAC cannot readily be detected by just a visual inspection and in some schools it may be hard to access some of the spaces where it might be present.

Where responsible bodies have indicated in responding to the DfE questionnaire that they are unsure if their schools have RAAC, the government must help organise further, timely investigations using qualified experts.

It appears that many schools are still awaiting structural surveys, meaning that the number affected is likely to grow significantly. Schools seeking to minimise the wait by appointing their own surveyors may find that this is easier said than done at a time when demand is so high.

The DfE told the National Audit Office (NAO) last term that 8,600 of nearly 15,000 schools which might have RAAC had not been investigated at that point (NAO, 2023).

Eight surveyors have been contracted by the government, and officials told the Education Select Committee last week that they are conducting 100 surveys a week. They reported two weeks ago that more than 600 schools had been surveyed.

But the government has refused to say how many surveys are still to be completed or give a timeframe.

At the time of writing, Ms Keegan has still not responded to questions from education unions to clarify this and update the NAO figures – or say how many schools are now suspected or deemed to be at risk of having RAAC.

We have also had no response to our request for guidance on how school leaders should respond if they are unsure if their building is safe and who is responsible for decisions to evacuate or remove premises from use.

Delays and lack of transparency are a concern for school leaders and undoubtedly for parents too. And the survey is just the first stage of a potentially disruptive process in which if the presence of RAAC is confirmed, temporary measures like installation of steel poles will be needed before more permanent repairs.

Funding is another concern at a time when many school budgets are already stretched.

The government has pledged to meet capital costs arising from the presence of RAAC, as well as “reasonable” revenue costs incurred by schools – for instance for portable “classrooms” and transport to other sites.

But it has yet to clarify what is “reasonable”, timescales for this funding, or the mechanisms by which schools can apply for the cash or be reimbursed. Ministers must honour promises to cover all the additional costs schools face. We also want a firm commitment that no existing non-RAAC capital projects will be delayed or cancelled.

It is crucial too, that the government learns lessons, because this last-minute scramble to put measures in place before the start of the new school year was unfair on schools, pupils, and families.

Even now, ministers have still not committed to the long-term programme backed by the significant new funding desperately needed to ensure all schools are safe places in which to learn.

Right now, it feels that there is no end in sight and schools could have ceiling props and mobile classrooms for the foreseeable future – a sad reflection of the neglect and cuts we have been warning about for years.

We urge the government to provide the clarity school leaders and families are seeking, to ensure no school is left out of pocket, and to set out an ambitious plan to refurbish and rebuild school buildings in November’s Autumn Statement – if not sooner.

Paul Whiteman is general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. Read his previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/paul-whiteman/ 

 

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