Calls for urgent action to ensure North Yorkshire school buildings are safe
A letter's been sent to the Prime Minister
There are calls for urgent action to ensure school buildings are upgraded and made safe across North Yorkshire.
Eight unions and the National Government Association have written to the Prime Minister, saying there needs to be extra funding spent every year.
Trade unions have urged Rishi Sunak to commit to an extra £4 billion to upgrade school buildings.
It is as the Department for Education continues to grapple with a crisis over crumbling concrete.
Gary McVeigh-Kaye is the branch secretary at the National Education Union in North Yorkshire. He said: "If schools had been maintained bit-by-bit as they required modification or upgrade, then we wouldn't be in this awful situation now where we've got schools that have been propped up by steel girders in classrooms that are frankly not fit for use for children.
"This is an on-going situation developing all the time but all of the RAAC that's been found in schools have obviously been hidden behind asbestos, and that in itself brings another incredibly dangerous situation to light. We in the NEU have been campaigning for a long time for the proper systemic of all asbestos from all schools.
"Our priorities in the NEU are to make sure that our schools are safe for our children and staff and that buildings are safe to teach and learn in. Any building that contains asbestos is not, even when that asbestos is hidden away it's still there, it's still lurking and still dangerous. It only takes a water leak to release asbestos.
"We shouldn't be reacting, we should be proactive and any Government who treats education seriously needs to now not hide behind sort of maintaining schools bit-by-bit as we go forward, there needs to be a comprehensive plan to make sure our schools are fit for the 21st century and beyond.
"We know the amount of children who didn't return to school after Covid. We know we've got an on-going situation of absenteeism and unless the Government gets a grip of this very quickly, that's only going to exacerbate the situation. We're going to have more children who are going to feel disenfranchised, more parents who don't feel confident that they're sending their children into a safe environment."
The letter
In a letter to the Prime Minister, eight trade unions and the body representing school governors warned of "serious concerns" about the state of school buildings in England as they appealed for more funding in the autumn statement in November.
"We call on the Government to invest at least an extra £4.4 billion annually to upgrade school buildings at the upcoming Autumn Statement, bringing the total yearly spend to the £7 billion your own officials have previously recommended.
"This will help ensure this crisis never happens again and show the Government is prepared to spend whatever it takes to keep children safe in education," the letter says.
It has been signed by the leaders of the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers, NASUWT, the National Education Union, GMB, Unison, Unite and Community.
The National Governance Association also signed the letter.
Scores of schools and colleges in England were told by the Government to fully or partly close their buildings just days before the start of the autumn term amid concerns about collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
The decision, taken by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, has sparked renewed concern about the state of school buildings.
Critics and opposition parties have accused the Conservatives of underfunding school rebuilding and improvement over the last decade.
The unions tell Mr Sunak: "Parents, school staff and children and young people have been alarmed to hear - at the start of the new academic year - about crumbling school buildings and the deterioration of the school estate, which could present a very serious risk to their safety.
"The crisis involving reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete has shone a broader light on the crippling underfunding of our school buildings, which has left many unsafe and no longer fit for purpose."
They say that parents and teachers have long complained about "crumbling school buildings, asbestos, leaking roofs, and temporary accommodation that had long outlived their intended lifespan".
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to deliver his autumn statement on November 22.