Rotherham school repairs ‘reactive and fragmented’ as council draws up new plan
Surveys are under way to establish what work is needed across council-maintained schools and which jobs should come first.
Rotherham Council is checking its school buildings as it seeks to move away from a “reactive and fragmented” approach to repairs.
Surveys are under way to establish what work is needed across council-maintained schools and which jobs should come first.
A report for the Improving Lives Select Commission on November 3 describes an approach focused on known failures and urgent defects, with “limited portfolio-wide visibility”.
The council wants a clearer picture of building conditions so it can plan ahead, forecast costs and reduce disruption to education.
Safety and legal requirements would help determine which repairs take priority, alongside the condition of buildings, future demand for school places and the consequences of something failing.
Affordability will also be a factor, with the presentation describing the need to direct “limited resources to the highest-priority needs”.
The surveys will feed into a long-term maintenance plan setting out proposed work, costs and timescales.
Those figures have yet to be established, and no additional capital funding is being sought at this stage.
The presentation says Department for Education funding currently supports priority work to keep maintained school buildings “safe, warm and dry”