Letter to the Secretary of State for Education regarding the presence of RAAC in Crawley schools

Monday 4^th September 2023

The Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP

Secretary of State for Education

Sanctuary Buildings

Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3BT

Dear Secretary of State,

We are writing on behalf of our community to express the deep concern many people feel with your department’s handling of the potentially lethal issue of crumbling concrete in local schools.

The issue of Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete in local schools isn’t new and for some years now with the Labour Party, local authorities, and teaching unions have been pressing your department for action.

Rather than using this time to develop a plan for addressing the problem, the announcement that children are not to be permitted into any buildings known to contain RAAC just days before the re-opening of schools, has created chaos for both parents and teachers.

Worse, the lack of action taken to identify the buildings at risk after five years of debate—with the Department for Education almost unbelievably last night resorting to Twitter to ask anyone involved in running a school containing RAAC to get in touch, not only reveals a staggering lack of competence in the running of your department but a breathtaking negligence towards the safety of our children.

How many children are returning to school tomorrow in buildings which are unsafe? Given that RAAC’s tendance to collapse with no warning, the fact that these buildings have not yet been identified via an asset survey does not in any way make them any safer than those buildings your department has ruled children must not be allowed to enter.

Children, parents and teachers deserve to know that you will now act to keep them safe. With that in mind, it is vital that your department now does three things:

Immediately publish the full national list of schools involved so that every parent can be sure whether their child is affected.

Provide a full explanation as to why it has taken until now to act, despite receiving warnings about this problem from the Local Government Association, Labour Councils, and the Labour Party several years ago.

Give a clear and unequivocal guarantee to parents in Crawley that every local school–including academies, free schools, and nurseries–have been subject to an asset surveyed aimed at detecting RAAC and consequently that their children are not at risk.

Action up to this point has been unacceptably slow in the face of serious risk, a change of pace in addressing the issues outlined above will be vital in ensuring the wellbeing of children and restoring confidence in your department. We look forward to immediate action being taken.