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<p>It is the responsibility of those who run schools - academy trusts, Local Authorities
and voluntary aided school bodies - to manage the safety and maintenance of their
schools and to alert the Department if there is a serious concern with a building. It
has always been the case that where the Department is made aware of a building that
may pose an immediate risk, immediate action is taken.</p><p>The Department will spend
whatever it takes to keep children safe. It will fund emergency mitigation work needed
to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.
Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, the Department
expects all reasonable requests will be approved. The Department will then also fund
refurbishment projects, or rebuilding projects, to rectify the RAAC issue for the
long term. The Department will set out further details for affected schools and colleges
in due course.</p><p>The Department will work with the relevant responsible body,
which will depend on the type of school or college with confirmed RAAC. Every case
will be different, and the Department is working closely with affected schools and
colleges to understand and support their needs, including with capital funding.</p><p>The
Department’s immediate support will be managed from unallocated departmental budgets.
This will not impact existing programmes.</p><p>The Department will always put the
safety and wellbeing of children and staff in education settings at the heart of its
policy decisions. The Government has taken more proactive action to identify and mitigate
RAAC in education settings than the devolved administrations in the UK, or indeed,
governments overseas.</p>
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