Around 700,000 children in England are studying in schools requiring major rebuilding or refurbishment which can negatively impact pupil attainment and teacher retention, with insufficient plans for decarbonising the school estate, according to this National Audit Office report.
The report found that more than a third (24,000) of English school buildings are past their estimated initial design life. These buildings are more expensive to maintain and have poorer energy efficiency, leading to higher running costs.
In recent years, there has been a significant funding shortfall contributing to the deterioration of school buildings. The DfE has reported that £7 billion a year is the best practice level of capital funding to maintain, repair, and rebuild the school estate.
In 2020, the DfE recommended funding of £5.3 billion a year to maintain schools and mitigate the most serious risks of building failure. However, the DfE was subsequently allocated an average of £3.1 billion a year of relevant funding from HM Treasury. This includes funding to rebuild 500 schools over a ten-year program, on which the DfE is making slower than initially expected progress in awarding contracts. Between 2016 and 2022, the DfE spent an average of £2.3 billion a year.
The NAO's report also found that the DfE has assessed the possibility of a building collapse or failure causing death or injury as a "critical and very likely" risk since summer 2021. The report highlighted ongoing concerns with the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a lightweight form of concrete prone to failure that was used between the 1950s and mid-1990s. The DfE has been considering the potential risk posed by RAAC since late 2018, following a school roof collapse.