Department for Education plans to rebuild and repair schools across England may not be enough to “eliminate risk” across the estate, its permanent secretary has admitted.
The admission came during a Parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) hearing today, in which Susan Acland-Hood was quizzed about the rapidly deteriorating school estate.
Alongside Acland-Hood, DfE director general of schools Andrew McCully and director general for strategy, Graham Archer, also gave evidence.
Here’s what we learned.
1. School building plans may not ‘eliminate risk’
Acland-Hood warned there was no form of condition survey that will “reliably guarantee it has picked up every possible issue a building might suffer”.
Current efforts to address the issue include the school rebuilding programme, which will see 500 schools partially or fully rebuilt. There is also ongoing research into the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) across schools.
The government also provides annual maintenance funding to schools, trusts and councils.
Pressed by MPs, Acland-Hood said: “If the question is am I confident that the scale of programmes we have at the moment will eliminate risk across the school estate, I can’t say that.
“What I can say is we have got the best possible information we have to allow us to target the money in the programmes we have at the areas of greatest risk.”
2. Tutoring take-up is official’s ‘biggest disappointment’
Graham Archer, who was previously in charge of the DfE’s education recovery programme, lamented the fact 13 per cent of schools have not taken part in the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).
“That remains, for me at least, the biggest disappointment in the programme,” he said.
But he said the DfE continued to put a “good deal of resource” into persuading schools of its benefits.
The committee also questioned the department’s decision to stop subsidies for the scheme in 2024.
Underlining pressures to school budgets, Conservative MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown suggested schools needed more funding.
“Unless the schools are funded specifically for it – extra funding from what they’re getting now – it is effectively going to wither on the vine,” he said.
“Wouldn’t that be the wrong thing to do given the benefits we’ve already seen?”
3. Another 10 years to close the attainment gap?
Key stage 4 performance data from last year shows the attainment gap now stands at 3.84, the widest it has been since 2011-12, when it was 3.89.
When the figure came out in October, Sutton Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl said it showed Covid had “reversed a decade of progress”.
But it could take that long to reduce the gap again, Acland-Hood admitted.
“I do think we should be able to reduce the gap at least as quickly as we did before the pandemic,” she told MPs, although data did show the gap starting to grow before Covid struck.
When asked if this meant it could take another decade before we see the attainment gap fall to pre-pandemic levels, she said “if we can go faster than that, we will.”
5. Some schools prioritised exam students for tutoring
Schools Week revealed that in its second year, just 49 per cent of tuition through the NTP reached disadvantaged pupils.
This was against the government’s original 65 per cent target.
But Acland-Hood said it “didn’t seek to prevent schools from tutoring pupils who didn’t meet the technical definition of disadvantage”.
She added that some schools targeted pupils in exam years, meaning more non-disadvantaged children received tutoring.
“We thought it was important schools had the option to make those choices.”
6. DfE thanks teachers after Williamson texts revelation
During the hearing, Acland-Hood made a point of thanking teachers and heads who kept schools open for the most vulnerable pupils during the pandemic.
She added that she wanted to reiterate, “given recent events” that the “hard work, dedication and impressive resolve and professionalism of teachers” through the pandemic had been an “inspiration”.
Asked if that meant she had been embarrassed by messages from former education secretary Gavin Williamson suggesting an anti-teacher sentiment in government, Acland-Hood said “I couldn’t possibly comment”.
7. SEND plan delays led to ‘better product’
The DfE published its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) improvement plan last week, in response to a review first launched in September 2019.
Acland-Hood said it was important for there to be a “significant period of consultation” in order for the process to be successful.
But Covid interrupted the initial consultation, and it then became apparent the pandemic itself had changed the landscape for SEND.
“I know it took longer than we hoped, but it took us to a better product as a result.”
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