Thousands more schools at risk from ‘crumbly concrete’ with checks yet to be carried out, report says, as fears grow children could return to lockdown learning for MONTHS after alarm is raised that some affected buildings also contain ASBESTOS

Thousands of more schools could be at risk from crumbly concrete with safety checks yet to be carried out, it has been revealed.

It comes as fears continue to mount that children could be forced to return to lockdown style learning, while others warned that asbestos could be exposed in schools affected by the issue.

Asbestos exposure – which kills 5,000 people in the UK every year – could force schools to shut for months on end, experts have warned, with some even having to be demolished early.  

With the new school year starting this week, more than 100 have been told by the Department of Education they will need to at least be partially closed after being built with the aerated concrete, known as RAAC. As many as 24 could close entirely. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of  engineers are set to scramble to schools tomorrow to inspect risky sites that may have been built with the aerated concrete, known as RAAC. It is thought up to 7,000 pose a potential threat.

The timing of the catastrophe – and the suggestion the Government has known about the true scale of the crisis for years – has infuriated parents with some pupils facing a return to Covid-style online lessons on Monday.

The Government is being urged by opposition parties and education campaigners to reveal the full list of schools affected by the ongoing crisis, which is also affecting other public buildings such as hospitals, leisure centres and police stations.

Scaffolding is seen outside classrooms as repair work continues at Hornsey School for Girls in London

A taped off section inside Parks Primary School in Leicester which has been affected by the Raac crisis 

With the new school year starting this week, more than 100 have been told by the Department of Education they will need to at least be partially closed. Pictured: Workmen at Abbey Lane Primary School in Sheffield  

Matt Byatt, president of the Institution of Structural Engineers told the Sunday Times last night: ‘There are two real risk-to-life elements to this: if RAAC collapses it puts life at risk in an instantaneous manner; and asbestos can be deadly if it’s inhaled.  

‘These are not lightweight issues – they are very serious and they should be treated as such.’

Asbestos remains safe as long as it is not disturbed. It can be disrupted by parts of buildings collapsing which can led to the release of dangerous fibers. These can cause a number of ailments from asbestosis to lung cancer. 

‘Asbestos in schools presents a significant complicating factor in remediating issues relating to RAAC,’ John Wallace managing director of Ridgemont construction and real estate law firm told the paper. ‘Asbestos, once disturbed, is a serious hazard.’ 

Pressure is mounting on the Government to act faster to redeem the situation, as thousands of children across the UK look forward to the new term. 

Labour is planning to put forward a humble address – a parliamentary mechanism used to demand papers from Government departments – to force a publication of affected schools.

The Lib Dems have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a COBRA meeting to discuss the crisis. 

The general secretary the Natioanl Education Union, Daniel Kebede, slammed the Government’s response telling the Sunday Telegraph it ‘looks like it is being made up on the hoof’.

‘They have to set out a coherent strategy, so that schools, children and parents can have certainty about when their building can return to normal,’ he added. 

And Conservative special advisor to the Department of Education, Mark Lehain, warned in the paper: ‘We can’t have temporary measures obstructing the smooth functioning of school for long’.

But the Department has insisted in the ‘rare cases’ where children are forced back into remote learning it would be ‘for a matter of days not weeks’.

While under-fire schools minister Nick Gibb insisted most schools are safe and urged parents not to worry, telling Times Radio yesterday: ‘Parents can be assured that if they haven’t heard from schools, that it is safe to send their children into school.’

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson hit out at the Governments plans. She said: ‘It’s time ministers were transparent about their handling of this debacle: if they still refuse to publish these documents and give parents the reassurances they deserve about the risks to their children’s safety, then we will force a vote in Parliament next week.’

Dame Meg Hillier, pictured, says the closure of school classrooms due to the aerated concrete is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’

Schools minister Nick Gibb attempted to calm worries in a round of interviews on Friday. He told Times Radio: ‘Parents can be assured that if they haven’t heard from schools, that it is safe to send their children into school’

‘The public have the right to know where public buildings are affected by this dangerous concrete, what ministers knew and why they acted to intervene only days before the start of term,’ she told the Mirror. 

Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of the public accounts committee, said yesterday that the safety fears were ‘just the tip of the iceberg of a failing school estate’.  

She questioned why the Government had still not published a list of schools affected by the collapse-prone concrete – adding that it is probably not possible using public sources.

The race to fix the issues in schools comes after a beam – previously thought to be safe – collapsed.

RAAC is a lightweight material used in roof, floor, cladding and wall construction in the UK from the mid-1950s until the 1990s. 

Head teachers were reportedly sent a survey in May asking to report if their buildings contained RAAC, and fewer than half of 14,700 schools deemed at risk responded.

The replies suggested 572 may have been affected, the paper reported, with officials earmarking £6million for 600 inspections by the end of 2023.

In guidance published by the Department of Education on Thursday, when the issue reared its head once again, it recommended using nearby schools, community centres or an ’empty local office building’ for the ‘first few weeks’ while structural supports are installed to mitigate the risk of collapse.

It insisted schools should only return to remote teaching as a ‘last resort and for a short period’. 

Caroline Evans, headteacher at Parks Primary School in Leicester, stands next to a taped off section inside the school on Friday

Staff move furniture and equipment out of a closed classroom at Willowbrook Mead Primary Academy in Leicester on Friday

St Francis Catholic Primary School in Ascot, Berkshire, on Friday where workers have erected temporary classrooms as marquees on the school field due to the presence of RAAC in the roof

On Thursday it said it had contacted 104 more schools after 52 of the 156 educational settings containing the concrete took protective steps so far this year. 

The DfE said said it was working with teachers to make sure that in cases where remote learning is required it would be for ‘a matter of days, not weeks’.

It said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will inform Parliament next week of the plan to keep parents and the public updated.

‘We have been clear since Thursday about the number of schools immediately impacted by Raac,’ a department spokesperson said.

‘It is vital that schools are given time to inform parents and consider their next steps, with extensive support from our caseworkers, before the list of affected schools is published.

‘The Education Secretary will inform Parliament next week of the plan to keep parents and the public updated on the issue.

‘Fifty-two of the 156 Raac cases identified already have mitigations in place, and while some of the remaining projects will be more complex, many will range from just a single building on a wider estate, down to a single classroom.

‘We are incredibly grateful to school and college leaders for their work with us at pace to make sure that where children are affected, disruption is kept to a minimum, and in the even rarer cases where remote learning is required, it is for a matter of days, not weeks.’

Hundreds of schools across the country were built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, known as RAAC, between the 1960s and 1990s

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was used as a cheap post-war building material in public sector construction projects

A collapsed RAAC roof at a Kent primary school

Engineers have warned that the problem could be far wider, with hospitals, prisons, courts and offices potentially at risk due to the use of Raac up to the mid-1990s.

Raac is thought to be present in at least 34 hospitals across England, with the Government having pledged to replace seven of the worst affected by 2030.

The Government has said it will rebuild seven hospitals most affected by RAAC by 2030, after reports it is present in 24 hospital buildings in England and potentially as many as 250 NHS buildings in Scotland. 

Last month Harrow Crown Court in North West London was shut for the foreseeable future after RAAC was discovered while improvements were being carried out.

And the Ministry of Justice is investigating whether any prisons have been built with RAAC after it found the material in six buildings in the court system. Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence has been examining hundreds of barracks and training facilities.

Chris Goodier, professor of construction engineering and materials at Loughborough University, said ‘the scale of problem is much bigger than schools’, covering health, defence, justice and even the private sector. 

A report by the Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures published in April 2020 urged its members to check as a ‘matter of urgency’ whether their buildings had the material.

The report said that RAAC was used ‘primarily’ in offices and schools but that it had also been found in a ‘wide range’ of other buildings in both the public and private sector.

It said concerns had been raised about the safety of RAAC roof planks as early as the 1990s and early 2000s.

John Major’s Conservative Government was said to be made aware of the issue in public buildings 1995 with the issue being raised once again with the school’s minister in 2018 after a roof of a school in Kent suddenly collapsed.