I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, for Amendment 156. Well-maintained and safe buildings and facilities are essential to support high-quality education, and they remain a priority for this Government. Perhaps the noble Baroness will be very kind and pass on my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, for her update on the Welsh strategy.
As my noble friend Lady Berridge pointed out, responsibility for school buildings lies with the relevant local authority, academy trust or voluntary-aided school body. Those organisations are best placed to prioritise available resources to keep schools safe and in good working order, based on their local knowledge. We provide significant annual capital funding, major rebuilding programmes, and extensive guidance and support to the sector. We have allocated more than £13 billion to improve the condition of schools since 2015, including £1.8 billion committed this year.
7 pm
In addition, our school rebuilding programme will transform 500 schools over the next decade, prioritising schools where evidence of significant issues has been submitted. As I have mentioned to your Lordships before, we hope to announce the next 50 or so schools in the programme shortly but also plan to announce the following 250 before the end of the year so that schools can plan and local authorities and other responsible bodies can plan their capital expenditure.
Turning to the first part of Amendment 156, we have significantly improved our understanding of the condition of the estate through our condition data collection programmes. I assure the noble Baroness that we have already published a report on our overall findings on school conditions, in May 2021, as I think she may have referred to, and have shared individual reports with the school sector. We plan to publish more detailed condition data at school level this year and will publish information from our new survey, the condition data collection 2 programme, in due course.
On the second part of the amendment, our view is that schools and those responsible for school buildings are best placed to assess the needs of their pupils and the provision of suitable equipment, ICT and other facilities. The department continues to prioritise its resources, and those of the sector, on data collection to support local authorities to deliver sufficient school places, and to help bodies responsible for schools keep those schools safe and operational.
It would be resource intensive for the department and the sector to collect data on amenities and equipment down to classroom level; we are concerned that it would quickly become out of date. Defining and agreeing
the scope of what equipment and facilities are appropriate for very different settings and pupils across all schools would also be challenging and open to interpretation. The department has, however, recently piloted central delivery of net capacity assessments; these assess teaching space, including size, type and use of rooms. We are planning to roll out assessments across secondary and special schools from next year. This will improve our intelligence on the quality of provision across the school estate.
The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, referred to Tiverton High School in Devon. The department has met local representatives from the school to discuss the buildings and the flood risk. As she knows, Devon County Council is responsible for the school and receives an annual school condition allocation to keep its schools safe and in good working order, including £3.8 million for the financial year 2022-23. As I mentioned, we are currently in the process of assessing nominations for the rebuilding programme, which will be announced shortly.
On my noble friend Lady Berridge’s Amendment 171, our view is that there are sufficient mechanisms and powers in place to support the sector to keep school buildings safe and open. It is important that schools and responsible bodies have clear responsibility for their buildings and meet their wider legal duties for the safety of their pupils and staff, based on up-to-date local knowledge.
The safety of pupils and staff is paramount. However, we expect schools, trusts and local authorities to make decisions proportionate to the level of risk, and to minimise disruption. School buildings should close only where there are significant safety issues that cannot immediately be mitigated, typically based on professional advice. The department has also published advice on emergency planning to support the sector in preparing for rare events.
When schools alert us to significant safety concerns with their buildings, the department will always consider additional advice and give support on a case-by-case basis to help ensure that closures are only ever a last resort and that any disruption is minimised. In some cases, this may include commissioning a project directly in conjunction with the relevant parties, including the governing body. We also work closely with relevant regulators, such as the Health and Safety Executive, as appropriate.
My noble friend referred to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete; she knows very well, as she was responsible for it, that we published guidance in February 2021 on identifying RAAC and, where necessary, taking action to address it. We also stay informed about systemic risk so that appropriate support, guidance and programmes can be provided to support the sector in meeting its duties to ensure that schools can stay safe and open.
Where system-wide challenges have been identified, for example with the safe management of asbestos or risks from certain types of building construction, we have provided additional guidance or collected further information on the estate to help us understand and respond effectively to these issues. As I mentioned, we are rolling out a capital advisers programme, which will offer the sector best-practice recommendations from a team of experienced technical advisers.
Our view is that the current arrangements allow the department to take action proportionate to the level of risk and support schools with advice and funding when needed, but without abrogating the responsibilities and legal duties of the sector. We do not think that additional powers to compel schools to open when they have safety concerns are required at this time. The department taking on direct responsibility for school buildings, or compelling schools to open when they have safety concerns, could actually reduce safety overall as it could undermine the incentive to maintain buildings effectively and obscure the currently clear responsibilities for the safety of pupils and staff in our schools.