Measures to permanently remove Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated
Concrete (RAAC) from all
affected schools and colleges, have today been confirmed by the
Government (Thursday 8th February).
A final list of schools
and colleges with confirmed cases of RAAC in schools
and colleges in England has been published today. There are 234
education settings, out of 22,000, with confirmed RAAC in some
areas of their buildings - around 1%.
119 of these schools will have one or more buildings rebuilt or
refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme where works
to remove RAAC are more
extensive or complex.
Additionally 110 schools and colleges will benefit from grant
funding to remove RAAC from their
buildings where works will typically be smaller in scale.
5 schools and colleges, with support from the Department, have
alternative arrangements in place to address the removal of
RAAC,
for example the building will not be part of the school or
college estate over the longer term.
Those responsible for affected school and college buildings are
today receiving direct confirmation from the department on how
the RAAC removal will
be funded.
Education Secretary, , said:
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of every child
and member of staff in school.
We will continue to work closely with schools and colleges as we
take the next step to permanently remove RAAC from
affected buildings.
I want to thank all schools, colleges and local authorities who
have worked tirelessly with the department to ensure all children
remain in face-to-face education.
The Department’s RAAC
Identification programme is now complete as 100% of schools and
colleges with blocks built in the target era have responded to
the questionnaire.
All schools or colleges that advised us they suspect they might
have RAAChave had a
survey to confirm if RAAC is present.
A small number of schools and colleges are carrying out
additional checks for further assurance in some spaces. The
Department is working with responsible bodies to support them to
complete these additional checks as quickly as possible.
In addition to the 119 schools with confirmed RAAC included in
the School Rebuilding Programme, the Department has today
confirmed that a further 8 schools without RAAC have also
been added to the programme. The projects announced today take
the total number of schools in the programme to 513. The ten-year
School Rebuilding Programme is continuing to prioritise school
buildings with the highest condition need across England through
rebuilding or significantly refurbishing buildings.
The Government has already confirmed it will fund schools and
colleges for the costs of work needed to mitigate the presence of
RAAC.
Today’s announcement provides certainty for individual schools or
colleges in England on how the Government will support the
removal of RAAC from their
buildings.
Our priority will always be to ensure the safety of pupils and
staff, which is why we took a cautious approach for schools and
colleges. Although the technical advice does not recommend
removal in all cases where it is present, we have taken a
precautionary approach for the education estate in England to
remove RAAC.
£1.8 billion has already been committed in capital funding this
year to support schools to stay in good working order, as part of
£15 billion allocated since 2015. The School Rebuilding Programme
will transform over 500 schools over the next decade. A
further £1.5 billion has been made available for colleges through
the further education capital transformation fund.
