It would be considered that pupil safety & the condition of our education estates are of paramount importance to ensure that the children in our country are learning in not just a welcoming environment but also a safe and secure one.
Worryingly, the National Audit Office has reported that approximately 700,000 pupils in the England are learning in unsafe or aged school buildings, all in urgent need of major repairs.
The Department for Education (DfE) has been working tirelessly through their supply chains since 2021 to assess the risk of injury or death from school building collapse and the risk has been assessed and concluded to be “very likely and critical”. The DfE have been “significantly investing in transforming schools” through various channels of investment such as the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), Schools Condition Allocation (SCA), Schools Rebuilding Programme and Investment into our Maintained Schools through their respective Local Authorities along with other capital investment.
The DfE had has allocated more than £15bn since 2015 to keep schools safe and operational, yet the outstanding risks still remain critical, showing that there is still a long way to go and a mountain to climb in terms of tipping the scales back to an adequate and satisfactory level of risk across our education estates.
Contrary to the above, The National Audit Office (NAO) who are the UK’s independent public spending watchdog, have said that risks had not been addressed as a result of years of underfunding into Education Estates. It has also been claimed that the Condition of our School Buildings have been a key factor in Teacher retention and damaging pupil attainment. These issues, paired with the current rising energy costs are causing schools and academies throughout the country to worry about how their buildings will remain safe and in unison, create the proper environment for teachers to deliver curriculum effectively to pupils, while also creating a safe environment for them to learn.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report established regional variations in the capital investment required to be spent per pupil to put their school back into good condition. The East and West Midlands have the greatest average per pupil, followed by parts of Northern England. Looking at trends of Condition Improvement funding data, it must be challenged why areas of the East/West Midlands and Northern areas always receive less capital investment through this fund than other areas in England, particularly southern regions when the need is clearly far greater.
The report has established that over a third of all English Schools (Totalling over 24,000) have passed their estimated initial design life. We have to factor in that some of these would have been improved over time but these stats are still very worrying. The same report has also highlighted the ongoing and serious concerns for School Buildings that contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). RAAC is a form of lightweight concrete particularly prone to collapse (Constructed within school buildings from the 1950’s to mid 1990’s). The DfE has identified at least 572 schools to date where RAAC may be present, so far confirmed in 65 of these and the numbers are rising. 24 of the 65 confirmed cases have been deemed urgent and require immediate attention. That is a statistic of 34% of the confirmed cases of RAAC deemed to be urgent and critical!
The above concerns over RAAC are added to all of the existing risks in older school buildings such as a number of deleterious materials, mainly asbestos risk, electrical and mechanical compliance, safeguarding and drainage/sewage and Legionella risks. Other problems arise from thermal comfort within the buildings as most school buildings were constructed with high levels of glazing, meaning without sufficient levels of heating and cooling systems within the schools, in the summer months, some schools are experiencing internal temperatures of circa 40 degrees, meaning schools are having to close as a result.
The NAO reported that the DfE had recommended minimum funding of £5.3bn per year to mitigate the higher risk items of building failure, and in the 2020 spending review it was reported £7bn per year would be the ‘best practice level’. The reported figure given to the DfE by the treasury is reported to be at an average of only £3.1bn per year.
The DfE have said that the government is investing in 500 projects for new build and refurbished schools through its School Rebuilding Programme, although to date the experience schools and academies have experienced has been very delayed, drawn out and frustrating, leaving them in limbo as to their maintenance obligations as a result of the delays in the rebuilding programme process.
Make Consulting are well versed in all areas of education estates funding and have extensive expertise in obtaining:
• Condition Improvement Funding (CIF)
• Schools Condition Allocation Prioritisation (SCA)
• New Build and Major Refurbishment Funding (Alternative to SRB)
• T level Capital Funding
• Decarbonisation Funding
• Salix Funding
• Post 16 Capacity Funding
• Community Funding
Make Consulting are a highly experienced property consultancy practice operating UK wide, consisting of experienced chartered surveyors (building & quantity), project managers, principal designers, funding consultants and Health and Safety advisors. Make have secured over £200m in funding for our education clients.
Whatever your concerns and issues may be regarding your education estates, we have the experience, approachable staff and the right solution to guide you through the uncertainties and give you the peace of mind to continue with your day job of running the school and educating our students.
If we can be of assistance, please get in touch with our Education Team Directors for a chat:
Jarrad Edwards, Director
Jarrad.edwards@make-consulting.co.uk
07506 155 735
Eleanor Gould, Director
Eleanor.gould@make-consulting.co.uk
07702 779 779
The story can also be found on the BBC at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66030635
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