The Terrible State of School Buildings Today – National Audit Office

Yesterday, the BBC and other news media were reporting on the release of the Condition of School Buildings report by the National Audit Office. Needless to say, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Sadly, we’re very aware of the challenges many schools are facing because we see the issues on a day-to-day basis when carrying out statutory inspections at around 100 schools around the region. We regularly find that buildings are in a poor or unsafe condition.

We work closely with a number of schools and are keen to do whatever we can to help raise awareness, which is why I sent a news release to BBC Breakfast, BBC North West Tonight, BBC Radio Manchester and several local newspapers to let them know exactly what we’re seeing on the ground. I also offered an interview, should any of them wish to look a little deeper into the situation.

After further consideration, I thought it important enough to share our news release with you, which is shown in full, below. It may surprise you, what some schools are having to deal with on a regular basis.

Our News Release

Children in Greater Manchester and Lancashire are being taught in schools with raw sewage coming up through drains, dangerous boilers and asbestos debris, according to a specialist school compliance company.

Salford-based Casserly Property Management has carried out statutory inspections at around 100 schools around the region which regularly find buildings are in a poor or unsafe condition.
A report by the National Audit Office today said around 700,000 children are being taught in school buildings which need major repairs.

Paul Casserly, Director of Casserly Property Management, said he fears the situation will only get worse as schools struggle to raise funds for vital building work.

The company inspects schools in Bolton, Blackburn, Lancashire, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport and Trafford.

Among the schools the firm works with they have found:

• A primary school with constant drainage issues causing blocked drains, blocked toilets and raw sewage coming out of internal manholes inside the school. Drainage contractors attend and resolve these issues at the school on a monthly basis as repairing the partially collapsed drains under the school building is simply unaffordable to the school.

 

• A secondary school that has had water temperature issues for many years. Due to the age of the school’s plant and equipment the hot water is stored below the guidance temperature of 60°c which increases the risk of legionella growth. The school was due to have new pipes and equipment installed in 2021 but this didn’t progress due to funding issues and is still an ongoing problem.

 

• A school with a cold-water storage tank based in a loft space to which there is no safe access so regular legionella monitoring cannot take place which again increases the risk of legionella growth.

 

• A school built in the 1930s that had issues with its flue system dripping condensate into the boiler room and allowing emissions to come back into the boiler room rather than ventilate through the flue. As soon we discovered this (which was in the middle of the winter) the boilers had to be shut off for safety reasons and the school had to temporarily close whilst we sourced and hired temporary heating equipment (which creates further additional health and safety issues) whilst flue repairs and replacements were acquired and completed.

 

• A primary school with 3 boilers currently all in a poor state of repair, constantly breaking down due to their age and now only operating on 2 boilers with parts from one used to keep the others running (as the boilers are that old that replacement parts are no longer available) whilst the school await funding for new boilers which may be years away.

 

• Several schools with asbestos “debris” in the boiler room. Consequently, the boiler rooms need to be isolated and subject to a full clean under controlled conditions which costs thousands of pounds that schools simply have not budgeted for. The presence of asbestos in old school buildings is a common reason for preventing and delaying repairs whilst also increasing the cost of any repairs often beyond the budget of schools.

 

• A primary school that required a new fire alarm as the fire risk assessment noted the current provisions were not fit for purpose and the school had no sufficient means to raise an alarm throughout parts of the school. The school raised a bid for funding and were initially unsuccessful although thankfully they have subsequently reapplied and have now been successful. A rare funding success story.

Paul Casserly said: “Carrying out the statutory compliance inspections in approximately 100 north west schools which includes all the electrical and mechanical testing Casserly Property Management sees at first hand the state of disrepair of many schools caused by a lack of funding which was highlighted in the report.

“Whilst we work with our schools to try and resolve these issues without adequate funding some problems cannot be resolved which is to the detriment of all our children and we fear the situation will only get worse.”

If you'd like a copy of the NAO Condition of School Buildings Summary report, you can get one here - or click on the image.