Education Secretary defends holidaying in Spain as concrete disaster unfolded
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ducation Secretary Gillian Keegan has defended holidaying with household in Spain because the crumbling concrete disaster hitting faculties unfolded.
The Cabinet minister mentioned on Monday she has “always worked remotely” and continued to chair a response staff whereas on the continent for her father’s birthday.
Aides had conceded she was in Spain between August 25 and Thursday, when the closures at greater than 100 faculties have been ordered.
Her vacation emerged as Ms Keegan was underneath stress after being caught on microphone suggesting “everyone else has sat on their a*** and done nothing” as she tackled the disaster.
Ministers have mentioned they have been performing after receiving regarding new proof about strengthened autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) over the summer time.
Ms Keegan mentioned the journey to Spain – the place she reportedly owns property in Madrid and Marbella – was her first alternative to go on vacation this summer time after coping with putting lecturers, in addition to GCSE and A-level outcomes.
She informed Sky’s Politics Hub: “I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me, I’m certainly not getting that vibe from you.
“But what I organized was to go on vacation on that day for my dad’s birthday – it was a household event and we went.”
The minister said she chaired a response team from Spain “each day” despite the vacation.
She said she has “all the time labored remotely” throughout her career, in business before becoming an MP, and said she planned to come back if investigations raised concerns.
“I got here again immediately – properly really I needed to wait a day due to the air visitors management subject,” she added.
She earlier told the Commons a list of the 156 schools with confirmed cases of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) will likely be printed “this week”.
Making a statement in the Commons on Monday, Ms Keegan said: “We will publish a list of schools once mitigations are in place.
Gillian Keegan recorded saying others ‘have been sat on their a***s’ on school Raac crisis
“It is right that parents are informed by schools if they are impacted and that schools have time to work with their DfE caseworker on those mitigations.
“I’m confirming today that we will publish the list of the 156 schools with confirmed cases of Raac this week, with details of initial mitigations in place.
“After this, we will provide updated information as new cases of Raac are confirmed and existing cases resolved.”
More than a hundred schools in England were told they could not fully open just days before the start of the autumn term because of safety fears over the use of Raac.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) is a lightweight building material used from the 1950s up to the mid-1990s, but is now assessed to be at risk of collapse.
Pupils face being taught in temporary classrooms, on different sites or even forced into pandemic-style remote lessons.
Leaders of a coalition of unions wrote to Ms Keegan on Monday demanding urgent answers on the Raac “emergency”.
School workers are “managing the anxiety” of oldsters and carers on behalf of presidency and so they have a proper to understand how this occurred, the unions mentioned.
Affected faculties in London embrace Cleeve Park School in Sidcup, St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive in Eltham, Brixton’s Corpus Christi Catholic School, The Ellen Wilkinson School in Ealing, The Link School in Beddington and St Mary Magdalene and St Stephen’s CE Primary School in Westminster.
Ms Keegan mentioned all faculties and faculties that suspect they could have Raac will likely be surveyed “within a matter of weeks, in many cases in a few days”.
“Most … suspected cases will not have Raac,” she added.
The Education Secretary mentioned the Government is taking a “deliberately cautious approach to prioritising children’s safety”.
She additionally mentioned the Government’s “proactive approach” to assessing Raac in faculties, which included a programme {of professional} surveys begun in September 2022, revealed three circumstances over the summer time “where Raac that would have been graded as non-critical had failed without warning”.
The Prime Minister said it was “completely and utterly wrong” to recommend that he was accountable for failing to totally fund a programme to rebuild England’s faculties when he was chancellor.
Labour’s Bridget Phillipson advised to the Commons that Ms Keegan take duty.
“The Education Secretary said this morning that in her view it is not the job of her department to ensure the safety of our children’s schools, that she was doing a good job,” she mentioned.
“Schools are literally at risk of collapse, she is the Education Secretary, whose responsibility does she think it is then?”
Ms Keegan replied: “When I was given new information and had to consider the impacts that this would have on our schools and children, I took action, even though it was politically difficult.”