Seven education unions – Community, GMB, NAHT, NASUWT, NEU, UNISON and Unite – have written an urgent open letter to the Secretary of State for Education highlighting the shocking state of school buildings and calling upon the Government to take urgent action to make them safe and fit for the future.
image: Open Government Licence v3.0
… The DfE does not even know which school buildings are at risk of collapse…
Community writes:
Research by the House of Commons Library calculates that between 2009-10 and 2021-22, overall capital spending declined by around 37% in cash terms and 50% in real terms.
Such failure to invest in the maintenance and renewal of our school estate inevitably has consequences, and the Department for Education (DfE) acknowledged the situation had reached crisis point late last year, admitting in its Annual Report that some schools are at risk of collapse.
This comes at a time when, as noted by the 2022 TUC report Schools Built for the Future, there is also an urgent need to invest in retrofitting schools to ensure that they are climate resilient and energy efficient.
The DfE does not even know which school buildings are at risk of collapse. We have asked what measures it will take to ensure it has a full and accurate picture of the school estate, what steps will be taken to eradicate the risk of collapse, including interim measures to keep pupils and staff safe, and what additional funding will be provided to ensure all school buildings are safe and fit for the future, including for asbestos removal.
Community’s National Officer Helen Osgood said:
“The Department for Education must take swift action on this matter as the health and safety of our children and education workforce is on the line. Prompt action is needed to identify any problem buildings as a matter of urgency. The current assessments of buildings are not thorough enough, which means that currently underlying structural problems go unnoticed. Funding must be provided, so schools can ensure that the buildings they occupy do not have any major structural issues.”
Dan Shears, GMB National Health, Safety and Environment Director, said:
“These are truly appalling revelations. It’s no great surprise that schools are in poor condition – we have had a lost decade of under-investment – but to discover that schools are in danger of literally falling down is absolutely scandalous. In many ways the school system being at the point of actual collapse is the perfect metaphor for the current UK Government. The tragedy of the situation being that money which was wasted giving Tory donors inflated contracts for shoddy PPE could have been invested in bringing schools up to scratch. The money was found quickly enough during the early pandemic, and if collapsing schools aren’t an emergency, then what is?”
