Department of Education figures reveal majority of West Sussex schools in poor condition

Attention around school buildings is understandably currently focused on the issue of deadly concrete in schools. As already covered, in West Sussex there are 114 local authority maintained schools (we have no data on the condition of free schools or academies within the county), which potentially contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete.

The problems with RAAC have been raised repeatedly by the Labour Party and unions since 2018. Just last May Conservative MPs, including Crawley’s own Member of Parliament voted against publishing the list of schools known to be at risk. The decision to delay safety checks for buildings at potential risk of collapse in West Sussex until now has left tens of thousands of children potentially at risk.

Yet, while RAAC is the most pressing issue, it is by far not the only problem with schools maintenance since Michael Gove cut Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme in 2010. In fact, the Department of Education’s own figures reveal that visual checks have revealed that at least 210 schools in the county now contain at least one school building rated as ‘poor’ and 82 have at least one school building rated as ‘bad’.

To put that into context, there are 281 primary schools and 89 secondary schools currently locally maintained within West Sussex, so that’s the equivalent of 57% of West Sussex schools being in poor condition and 22% in bad condition.

RAAC is only the beginning of this problem. If we genuinely want the UK to prosper we need to begin taking the education of our children seriously again. That means addressing the causes of low teacher recruitment and retention, restoring school budgets to at least the point where parents aren’t asked to help supply toilet paper, and making sure that the majority of our schools aren’t in poor condition. The last 13 years proves that this will not happen under the Conservatives.