Civil servants keep at residence by means of RAAC disaster as college roofs crumble

School workers are frantically making an attempt to take care of the crumbling concrete disaster – however the majority of civil servants tasked with overseeing it appeared to keep away from their workplaces yesterday.

The Daily Express monitored workers members getting into the Department for Education constructing in central London between 8am and 11am.

Our group counted 209 DfE staff getting into the premises on Great Smith Street, Westminster.

That works out to simply 19 % of the capability with an estimated 1,100 desk areas obtainable within the constructing, based on Schools Week.

It comes as an estimated 24 schools have been forced to close because of the presence of the crumbling RAAC concrete forward of the brand new time period.

Some 156 colleges in England have been affected in complete – with 104 requiring pressing motion and 56 having already undergone restore work.

Our investigation provides to issues that civil servants throughout Whitehall departments are more and more working from residence on Mondays and Fridays.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, who final yr slammed workers for not being within the workplace by leaving ­“condescending” notes on desks and taking a photograph of empty workstations, stated: “Friday is a working day and this implies people think it is part of the weekend.

“Working from home should be a privilege when you are on top of the job. If you are manifestly failing to do your job, you should not be allowed to work from home.”

Our group additionally didn’t see Education Secretary Gillian Keegan arriving on the Sanctuary Buildings yesterday.

The low attendance at a important time dangers being additional proof that civil servants are persevering with to disregard calls to return to their desks.

According to official authorities statistics, the DfE’s London hub was half-empty, at 51 %, within the final two weeks of August – a drop of 5 % from the week earlier than.

And throughout all authorities departments, attendance stays low – at round 50 %. None had greater than two-thirds of workers at their desks.

Local cafe house owners – who earlier than the pandemic have been packed out with workplace staff at lunchtime – now shut early. Kaapila Hallikarachchige, the supervisor of Cafe Nuvo in Westminster, shuts at 2pm day-after-day resulting from civil servants selecting to earn a living from home more often than not.

He stated: “When everyone returned to work after the pandemic, we were busy once again and business was good. We were open all day, every day and particularly busy at lunchtime.

“But now, we’re lucky if we get a handful of customers a day. It’s killing us. I fear what the future holds, we’ve been here for 24 years and if we had to close it would break my heart.”

Hernan Sanchez, who opened the Express Coffee Co eatery across the nook from the DfE in 2000, stated he has seen a 40 % drop in prospects within the final couple of years.

The enterprise proprietor says he has needed to lower staffing ranges and switch off home equipment the place he can to save lots of money.

He stated: “It’s not like it used to be and that’s been hard on us.”

No 10 stated: “The Prime Minister’s view is that in-office working is vital, that unless there are proper exceptions, people should be in the office working to help the public.

“There are teams in the DfE working around the clock to provide ­reassurance to parents, to get data out and to contact schools that have not yet responded to surveys. But we know there is more to do to encourage people back into the office.”

The DfE was additionally contacted for remark.

Downing Street is poised to concern new steering to all Whitehall departments in a bid to finish the tradition of “Tuesday to Thursday” working which has developed because the pandemic.

Meanwhile, colleges that missed ­yesterday’s deadline to return a survey about doubtlessly crumbling concrete won’t be named and shamed.

The DfE backed down after a backlash – with claims many had already returned the kinds months in the past.

Geoff Barton, of The Association of School and College Leaders, stated: “Government handling of the RAAC crisis has been utterly shambolic.”