Response to crumbling schools crisis is ‘world-leading’, Tory minister claims

The response to the crumbling concrete crisis has been “world-leading”, an education minister said despite ordering the full or partial closure of more than 100 schools in England just before the start of term.

Schools minister Nick Gibb’s comments came after his boss Gillian Keegan said she was frustrated that no one was acknowledging what a “f****** good job” she was doing.

Mr Gibb said the Department for Education (DfE) was acting to keep children safe from the risk posed by collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).

Asked about the Education Secretary’s sweary outburst, Mr Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What she was trying to get across is the huge amount of work that the DfE has done.

“We are world-leading in terms of identifying where Raac is in our school estate,” he said.

“We’re talking about a small number of schools out of 22,500 schools, but we have conducted surveys since March last year, so we know where Raac is, and we’re sending in surveyors to identify Raac,” the minister added.

“And then the decision was taken, an important decision was taken last Thursday to keep children safe with new evidence that emerged about non-critical Raac that we now believe is unsafe, and we took the difficult decision because we want to keep children safe.”

Mr Gibb promised a list of schools affected will be published “before Friday” as he put the delay down to the need for it to be “accurate”.

In criticism caught on camera after an interview on Monday, a frustrated Ms Keegan hit out at those who she argued had “sat on their arse and done nothing”.

She also questioned why no one was saying “you’ve done a f****** good job”, before being forced to go before broadcasters to apologise for the language she used.

Ms Keegan went on to admit to being on holiday in Spain in the run up to ordering more than 100 schools and colleges in England to make complete or partial closures.

She was mocked on Tuesday for tweeting a graphic saying “most schools unaffected” by the Raac crisis, with Labour quick to post a spoof saying “most beachgoers not eaten by big shark”, in reference to the stance of the mayor in the movie Jaws.

Ministers have been accused of taking a “sticking plaster approach” to essential maintenance by the head of the Whitehall spending watchdog.

Writing in The Times, National Audit Office chief Gareth Davies suggested that there had not been sufficient focus on “unflashy but essential tasks” such as maintaining public buildings that have faced “underinvestment”.

Former education secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan was “frustrated” at lack of funding for rebuilding ageing schools whilst education minister.

“Having been a treasury minister myself, of course, I know that all departments put in significantly higher spending bids than they know that they’re going to achieve ... The Treasury never, ever says, yes, you can have everything overall – but they’re going to have to now,” Baroness Morgan told Times Radio.

The senior Tory added: “What we can’t now have is second guessing by the Treasury when the scale and the amount to be spent is fully quantified, the Treasury is going to have to find that money.”

Mr Gibb said he did not “accept” the NAO chief’s charge of underinvestment, telling Sky News: “We’re spending £1.8 billion a year… and we are taking more proactive action on that than any other government in the world.”

He also sought to defend Rishi Sunak’s decision-making while chancellor, after he was accused by a former top official at the DfE of having declined a request for funding to rebuild more schools at the time.

But Mr Gibb admitted that the DfE asked for funding to overhaul 200 schools a year in 2021 only for Mr Sunak to grant funding for just 50 a year.

“We put in a bid for 200, but what Rishi agreed to was to continue the rebuilding programme with 50 a year, consistent with what we’d been doing since we came into office,” the minister told Sky.

“Of course we put in a bid for 200, but of course the Treasury then has to compare that with all the other priorities from right across Whitehall, from the health service, defence, and so on.”

On Monday, the PM admitted hundreds more schools could have been built with problematic Raac.

He insisted that 95% of England’s schools were unaffected, leaving open the possibility that more than a thousand could still be impacted by the collapse-risk material.

Downing Street said the total number was expected to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was “unforgivable” that children were missing the start of term due to the crumbling concrete crisis.

Opening a meeting of his reshuffled shadow cabinet, Sir Keir said: “Children are not at school today because of the action the Government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable.

“It is a metaphor, frankly, for their sticking plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals – always sticking plasters.”