Officials are making urgent calls advising school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete, the Guardian has learned.
Department for Education documents show that staff have been asked to contact leaders of England’s schools and academies to check the preperation to vacate buildings constructed from Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) at a short notice and relocate students to alternatives such as transferable accommodation or even other schools in those areas.
While the dangers of ageing RAAC buildings have been highlighted since 2018 with a primary school roof collapse in Kent, the DfE’s ring- round comes only a few days before the beginning of the new school year in England.
The shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said, this is shocking evidence of a department in disarray. With days to go before the beginning of term and despite knowing about the potential risks posed by reinforced aerated autoclave concrete for months, [ministers] are now contacting schools to ask them if they are ready to close, further disrupting children’s education.
The director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders Julie McCulloch said, the fact that officials are rushing around days before the beginning of the new term, contacting schools about contingency’s neglect of the school estate.
The government needs to provide the required investment to make all school buildings safe and to replace those which are not fit for purpose.
The internal documents seen by the Guardian reveal the DfE’s urgent efforts to prepare schools for upheaval if their buildings have been found to include unstable RAAC, amid fears the lightweight concrete frequently used in construction between the 1950’s and mid-1990 is at risk of collapse.
In England after about 200 completed surveys, the decaying concrete has been found in 65 schools with 24 requiring emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The number of schools at risk are expected to increase when the result of surveys of 572 schools with suspected RAAC are published by the DfE.
The DfE’s script tells school leaders that, all spaces with confirmed RAAC- even if they are assessed as ‘non critical’ must have a suitable contingency in place.
The DfE asked school leaders to use existing network of contacts across local schools and the local authority to assist in managing the impact of many closures.
The document’s background notes say the DfE has serious concerns about the integrity of RAAC panels. It describes three stages of disruption: short term, which is about one month and includes school closure and remote learning as a last resort. Medium term is where it involves a temporary accommodation for up to three years and long term involves school being rebuilt.
The head of education at Unison Mike Short said, for months the government has done all it can to avoid providing staff and parents with information on the dangers in many schools.
The government needs to get hold on this issue and apply as much effort to fixing schools as it puts into hiding their parlous state.
