2) when the surveys for this first came out, the tone and temperament was very different to today. That will have shaped the diligence and urgency. The original survey included Yes/No/Maybe responses, so basically built in quite a lot of shrug room 🤷‍♂️

3) as such many schools will have thought as it was ok not to be sure, and had no indication this would become what it has become, and had no steer to get this professionally assessed, and so will have approached what was in effect a desktop exercise accordingly

4) this is especially true when assessment is difficult. For example, lots of schools built when RAAC was used were therefore also built when asbestos was used. So assessment is difficult, since to assess for RAAC you need to make the asbestos safe for accessibility first

5) the original approved provider list for RAAC assessment was originally quite restrictive, especially for schools in more rural areas, and waiting times of months has not been uncommon. As such, many will have just not been able to properly assess (this has now changed).

6) some schools will believe they have no RAAC because the DfE CDC process flagged up no RAAC, and so they reported accordingly. However, many Heads will tell you this was often just a brief visual inspection of a few ceilings, from ground level, often without great certainty

7) So I suspect this is going to grow and there will be more schools. The disruption, not to mention the cost, is going to be significant. I think we need to grasp the nettle - every school built within the key dates should have a formal inspection specifically for RAAC

8) the DfE policy decision in the meantime is how to manage the risk of the Don't Knows and the Maybes, and whether or not these schools need the same level of caution until RAAC or its absence is confirmed.

@michael_merrick @APHClarkson It amazes me that heads are being asked. Have we no institutional memory function which actually records these things as they are built so records can be looked up and precise plans be brought up. This has consequences for public safety, firefighting, disaster rescue etc. Are…

@michael_merrick All of this rings so true. I remember getting the email. Very casual tone, no real help on how to check, where to check, what to look for. A governor & I did our best. We had a CDC report which indeed was just a wander round, they don't do above head height!

@michael_merrick Also I think this was either just pre or post covid so a lot of people wouldn't have had the capacity to deal with it. I'm not qualified to judge this, I'm a teacher. And this sort of nonsense is one of the reasons I left HT role. So many mistakes & problems dumped at our door.