Speeches by Paffey.

“We hear your reassurance about no children being in unsafe buildings. On your point about revising the way that you assess risk, that is good, too, because obviously, the problems with RAAC were known about well before the school buildings crisis of 2023. At this point, with the revisions that you are doing, how confid…”

“There is a double challenge, too, because obviously, if you start losing children, you start losing revenue and the funding that comes with it. Have you seen this, again, not necessarily in those that you are dealing with, but across other parts of the sector?”

“You listed, and several of you have spoken about, the disruption caused by temporary classrooms, marquees, lost days and so on. For the children who are in those particular schools, have we seen any evidence of an impact on their achievement? For example, on examination results, have examinations been disrupted or have…”

“Sticking with the longer-term impact, the Association of School and College Leaders predicted that many of the schools where RAAC remediation was happening would see a dip in admissions, because two years on, parents are looking and saying, “Do I really want to send my kid there?” Has that been your experience from loo…”

“I appreciate you have had several things going on at once, with covid and so on, but if we are saying that the vast majority of schools where there is RAAC are still to be remediated, is now a better moment to start looking at that? Will there be monitoring and tracking of schools where RAAC remediation is going to hap…”

“You listed, and several of you have spoken about, the disruption caused by temporary classrooms, marquees, lost days and so on. For the children who are in those particular schools, have we seen any evidence of an impact on their achievement? For example, on examination results, have examinations been disrupted or have…”

“From the context of RAAC, I want to think about the wider lessons around the condition and maintenance of the school estate. You publish an annual report from the DFE. The last one, in July ’25, described the risk of building or element failure in the school estate as “Critical – Very Likely”—that was the category. Can…”

“Speaking about the school estate management standards, one criticism that has been levied against that is that there are no mechanisms for monitoring schools’ compliance or enforcing progression. Do you want to respond to that? How does the DFE hold responsible bodies accountable if it does not have a measure of whethe…”

“Turning to funding, five years ago, the DFE made a case to the Treasury that the amount that was needed to maintain the school estate and mitigate the risk of serious failure would total around £5.3 billion a year. In the spending review, we have announced £2.1 billion for maintenance, which is less than half the amoun…”

“That is helpful, because it moves us on to my next question, which is: what is the impact on usable space? You have outlined it in the short term. Are there any longer-term impacts that we should be concerned about or looking into at this stage? For example, one of the other things Baroness Barran said is that, on aver…”

“Yes, if it is about the risks that you are identifying and if you might be expecting there to be issues.”

“Thinking about the impact of all this, our predecessor Committee was told two years ago by Baroness Barran that, actually, remediation had been pretty quick across the board. That was her view. I just wanted to get your view on whether RAAC remediation has been timely and straightforward, as it is presented to be. I am…”

“We hear your reassurance about no children being in unsafe buildings. On your point about revising the way that you assess risk, that is good, too, because obviously, the problems with RAAC were known about well before the school buildings crisis of 2023. At this point, with the revisions that you are doing, how confid…”

“It is helpful to hear about how you are taking on the learnings and making sure that ongoing, day-to-day, business-as-usual maintenance will be different. Has anything already changed in how the DFE deals with emergencies as a result of the RAAC crisis?”

“Thinking about the impact of all this, our predecessor Committee was told two years ago by Baroness Barran that, actually, remediation had been pretty quick across the board. That was her view. I just wanted to get your view on whether RAAC remediation has been timely and straightforward, as it is presented to be. I am…”

“From the context of RAAC, I want to think about the wider lessons around the condition and maintenance of the school estate. You publish an annual report from the DFE. The last one, in July ’25, described the risk of building or element failure in the school estate as “Critical – Very Likely”—that was the category. Can…”

“What information do you hold on the estate management capacity of all the responsible bodies that are looking after our schools?”

“Yes, if it is about the risks that you are identifying and if you might be expecting there to be issues.”

“Sticking with the longer-term impact, the Association of School and College Leaders predicted that many of the schools where RAAC remediation was happening would see a dip in admissions, because two years on, parents are looking and saying, “Do I really want to send my kid there?” Has that been your experience from loo…”

“We all accept that more money is always the golden standard, but we also want to ensure that the money that is there is being used as effectively as possible. One of the tools for getting our schools into a better condition is the condition improvement fund, which has been criticised as too complex and for not awarding…”