To consider any items which the Chair has agreed to have submitted as urgent.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People reported that there was one school in Manchester which was confirmed as being affected by the RAAC issue and that this was All Saints C of E Primary School, Newton Heath.  He informed Members that the Council was supporting the school, Ward Councillors had also offered support and that the school had been allocated a caseworker from the Department for Education (DfE).  He advised that this issue would not have a significant impact on teaching within the school as the RAAC was in the school hall and that other community facilities were being considered, in case these were needed.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People outlined the national context of this issue, in particular a reduction in spending on rebuilding schools over the previous 13 years.  He expressed concern about the lack of information provided to the Council by the DfE on which schools were affected and which schools had not completed surveys, advising that the Council could provide support to schools with this.  He advised that he would keep Councillors updated as the situation developed, including communicating with Ward Councillors with an affected school in their ward.

The Director of Education outlined to the Committee who the responsible body was for different types of schools.  She explained that the Council was the responsible body for community maintained and voluntary controlled schools and that the relevant Diocese was responsible for voluntary aided schools.  For academies in a multi-academy trust (MAT), the MAT was the responsible body while single academies which were not in a MAT were their own responsible body.  She advised that all responsible bodies had been required to complete a survey about suspected RAAC within their school buildings.  She reported that the Council had completed surveys for the 71 schools which it was the responsible body for early in 2023.  She advised that she was aware that the Dioceses had completed the surveys for schools they were responsible for but that the Council had not yet been informed whether surveys had been completed for all the academies in Manchester, despite being in a position to help any who needed assistance.  She reported that the DfE was reviewing surveys which were received and, where there was suspected RAAC, a specialist surveyor was being sent to inspect the building.  She advised that where there was a confirmed presence of RAAC within a school building, the DfE was advising the schools to close off that part of the school and was allocating a caseworker to the school.  She reported that there was no indication that there was RAAC within any of the schools for which the Council was the responsible body.

The Chair advised that the scrapping of the Building Schools for the Future Programme in 2010 had led to this problem.

Councillor Flanagan, Ward Councillor for Miles Platting and Newton Heath, expressed concern that there had been a failure of leadership from the Government on this issue, advising that it was not realistic to expect headteachers to identify RAAC and that every school, including private schools, should have been surveyed by a building inspector.  He praised the response of Council officers, the Executive Member and the headteacher to the RAAC issue at All Saints Primary School and advised that everyone needed to work together to support affected schools.  He called on Committee Members to lobby the Chancellor of Exchequer to change taxation laws so that top private schools, such as Eton, did not attract charitable status and advised that the additional funding from this should be spent on addressing the RAAC issue and that affected schools should be charged lower business rates.  He advised Members that the Government should be instructing councils to inspect every building, noting that RAAC was used in a range of public buildings, and that the Government needed to provide extra funding to support this work.

Councillor Hitchen, Ward Councillor for Miles Platting and Newton Heath, thanked the Executive Member and Council officers within the Education Service, as well as the headteacher and staff of All Saints Primary School for their work to ensure that the pupils were able to return to school with as little disruption as possible.  She reported that her ward was one of the most deprived wards in the city and the pandemic had had a negative impact on the children so she welcomed the work to support the children and ensure they could continue their education.  She criticised the DfE for spending £34 million on refurbishing its offices, for school closures and reductions in spending on school maintenance.  She supported Councillor Flanagan’s comments about tax breaks for private schools and the need to inspect other public buildings.

The Chair commented that she was putting the Committee’s Representative of the Diocese of Manchester, which was the Diocese responsible for All Saints Primary School, in touch with the Ward Councillors.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People reported that Corporate Property were now undertaking an exercise to look at all Council buildings to ascertain whether any were affected by RAAC.  He emphasised that the Council was totally committed to addressing the issue of RAAC in schools, including providing assistance to any academies who required it.

In response to a Member’s question about secondary schools, the Director of Education reported that a lot of Manchester secondary schools were part of one of the Dioceses and the Council knew that surveys had been completed in relation to these schools but did not know whether surveys had been completed in relation to secondary schools which were academies.  She reported, while schools affected by RAAC would be provided with a DfE caseworker and a specialist structural survey, it was not yet clear what longer term help would be provided by central Government.

In response to a Member’s question, the Director of Education reported that it was too early to tell whether attendance levels had been affected by parents worrying about sending their children back to school due to RAAC but that this would be monitored.  In response to a question about communication, she explained how the Council, including the Communications Team and Press Office, worked with all types of schools on communicating information to parents, as well as on dealing with the media.

The Chair advised that most of the city’s Sure Start buildings had had their roofs replaced as part of planned maintenance but she expressed concern that a range of public buildings could be affected by RAAC.  She highlighted some of the questions trade unions had put to the Secretary of State for Education in relation to the Government’s response to RAAC in schools and advised that the Committee would be revisiting this issue.

Decision

That the Committee will receive an update on this at a future meeting.