The situation regarding changed advice on the safety of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in schools is extremely concerning.
An Education Minister contacted Greg Smith MP on Friday lunchtime to inform him of a confirmed RAAC case at a school within the constituency - Waddesdon School - and the process for determining any other potential cases. There are three other schools having urgent survey work carried out to determine whether they have this material in their buildings or not.
Greg immediately contacted the school involved and is also in close contact with Buckinghamshire Council to ensure everything possible happens as quickly as possible to minimise disruption to children’s education, install temporary facilities so classroom learning can continue and permanent works to remove the RAAC get underway as soon as humanly possible.
Greg challenged the Minister on why this has come about so suddenly and just before the start of term. It is infuriating that advice from engineers previously given that the RAAC was safe turns out to have been wrong, with incidents over the summer causing this sudden change in advice. Safety of children must be paramount, hence why this east action has been taken.
The Minister assured Greg that all resources necessary would be made available from the Department for Education - and he will hold feet to the fire over this to make sure it happens.
Greg absolutely understands how concerning this is for families affected and will do all he can do work with the affected school to ensure they get all the support they need from the Government and Council to ensure children get the education they deserve - and likewise is available to support all schools.
Commenting, Greg said, "The evidence on Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) has changed, so caution is right to protect the safety of pupils and teachers. I want to praise Matthew Abbott and his whole team at Waddesdon School for the professional way they are rising to this extremely difficult challenge, coming right at the start of the new school year. Fundamentally pupils deserve face to face learning not online learning, so I asked the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan this afternoon to intervene to ensure Waddesdon School get the support they need to rapidly procure temporary classrooms."
