Greater than 100 faculties are set to be utterly rebuilt because of the bolstered autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) disaster, the training secretary has stated.
On Wednesday (6 December) the federal government up to date its list of colleges and faculties in England that it has recognized include RAAC. The quantity now stands at 231, up from 214 acknowledged on 16 October.
The replace adopted additional surveys of the college property to determine the fabric, which was generally utilized in buildings within the post-war period and about which security warnings have been issued since 2018. Widespread school closures were ordered in August, simply days earlier than the brand new faculty yr started.
Training secretary Gillian Keegan advised parliament’s training choose committee on Wednesday that there’ll in all probability be solely a “handful of extra instances” recognized, a few of them anticipated in settings the place surveys might be carried out over the Christmas holidays.
Last month, the Public Accounts Committee highlighted that there have been 100 locations but to be chosen for the College Rebuilding Programme and plenty of of these might be chosen due to their points with RAAC. Some 1,200 faculties have been being thought-about for the Division for Training (DfE) programme.
Training committee chair Robin Walker requested what number of RAAC-affected faculties would must be utterly rebuilt.
Keegan stated the quantity was nonetheless being labored out. “We’ve obtained dedication from the Treasury that we’ll do what we have to do to rebuild if there’s greater than the 100 slots and I anticipate it in all probability might be extra.
“We’ll do the proper factor, we’ll take the robust selections, we received’t shrink back from these and we’ll work with faculties to maintain children in face-to-face training and in addition to verify we work pretty with them so that they get what they want in the long run.”
DfE everlasting secretary Susan Acland-Hood defined that round 110 of the colleges recognized have had mitigation put in place utilizing measures corresponding to hardwood or metal beams.
When requested by Labour MP Ian Mearns why faculties have been closed this yr relatively than motion being taken in 2018 after RAAC first turned a identified concern in Whitehall, Keegan defended the federal government’s method.
“We did take motion in 2018. In 2018, we up to date the steering for faculties and accountable our bodies as a result of we’d had an incident in Kent and we took motion and stated all accountable our bodies have to take motion on RAAC due to the findings of each the NHS and DfE,” she stated.
“The large distinction [between departments] is the variety of buildings but additionally who’s accountable for the buildings. The NHS is accountable for their buildings. They’ve a few hundred they usually have property administration groups to do it. We’re not accountable for the buildings and have 64,000 buildings […] underneath 7-8,000 accountable our bodies.”
Requested at about points stemming from three faculties constructed by defunct contractor Caledonian Modular that need to be demolished due to defects, Acland-Hood dismissed a suggestion that there was a difficulty with modular building past “the way in which the modules have been put collectively by the corporate”.
