The leaders and staff of the 50 schools chosen for major rebuilding schemes in the first phase of the government’s 10-year plan will be both relieved and delighted that the long wait for investment in the fabric of their buildings is apparently over.
At ASCL we are delighted for them and very much welcome the £1 billion investment. Congratulations to all those involved for their work in developing these exciting projects, which will be of enormous benefit to pupils and communities.
But, before we get too carried away, there has been precious little detail revealed by the government so far and, quite possibly, more questions remain than have been answered. Without wanting to sound ungracious, let’s keep this announcement in perspective.
What is the School Rebuilding Scheme?
Details of the rollout of the project are vague. We believe the first 50 projects will begin in the latter half of this year, but rebuilds of this magnitude are a lengthy process and involve weeks, months and, potentially, years of disruption for the schools involved, not to mention a significant amount of logistical planning beforehand.
With no start dates confirmed it is also unclear just how quickly pupils will be able to move in and start to benefit from the investment. One thing is abundantly clear; it won’t be any time soon.
While the 50 schools selected will be breathing a collective sigh of relief, the elephant in the room is what happens to those not on the initial list. The 50 represent a tiny proportion of the entire estate of 21,000 schools, with the majority having legitimate demands for capital to properly maintain their buildings.
DfE has used its established Condition Data Collection survey (CDC) to select the lucky 50 but basing decisions on data alone removes the human element and gives the governing boards – the people who know their schools best – no chance to plead their cases.
Just how much say school leaders will have on how the money is spent is also currently unclear but we need to create spaces flexible enough to meet the needs of the curriculum in 2021 and in years to come. In the remaining years of the project, an opportunity for the governing bodies to apply for funding and to justify how best to spend it to create the learning spaces of the future would be a welcome step forward.
School refurbishment
Before the construction teams move in we should also give some consideration to how the return on investment will be evaluated. Involving school leaders early in the process will ensure that valuable lessons learned during the first tranche are built upon in future years. This is a large and welcome programme and we need it to be done well.
The £1 billion investment crucially needs to be set against a backdrop of a national school estate in a poor state of repair, with an enormous and ever-growing backlog of repairs and refurbishment. Four years ago the National Audit Office estimated that it would cost £6.7 billion to return all school buildings to satisfactory or better condition.
The initial £1 billion is clearly more than a drop in the ocean but what is really needed is a firm commitment to invest the entire £6.7 billion, frontloaded in order to get as many school rebuilds underway as quickly as possible. We’ll be paying close attention to what the Chancellor has to say when he sets out departmental budgets for the next three years later in 2021.
We are making progress but, frankly, we hope for a day when all schools are able to have facilities fit for the 21st century.
Julia Harnden, Funding Specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders.
