Asbestos Management in Schools – Data Collection Report
A Government Data Collection Report published this month has stated Asbestos in schools is a serious issue and new guidance has been issued to assist schools with managing asbestos.
Between January and March 2016, a voluntary survey on asbestos management was sent to all schools in England, with a quarter (25.2%) of schools responding.
Presence of asbestos
Of the 5,592 schools that responded:
- 4,646 (83.1%) reported asbestos was present
- 872 (15.6%) reported that asbestos was not present
- 74 (1.3%) reported that they did not know if asbestos was present
Management of asbestos
- 2,884 (51.6%) responses either had no asbestos or generally appropriate management arrangements in place
- 1,684 (29.5%) responses generally had appropriate arrangements in place, but there was a need to take some action to improve, which was explained in automatically generated advice
- A total of 1060 (19.0%) schools were not compliant and advice on action needed sent to each school in automatically generated advice.
A subset of the schools – 114 (2.0%) gave significant cause for concern and were immediately contacted. The report confirms that each school will be followed up to ensure they have plans in place to address the concerns their responses raised.
The report states there is likely to be a selection bias towards schools that are already managing asbestos well, and so the results are unlikely to be representative of the full schools estate. This means the true number of schools who do not comply with asbestos safety procedures is likely to be far higher.
“Don’t put drawing pins in the wall”
Concern over the number of schools which were not managing asbestos properly has prompted the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to issue new guidance. This includes reminding teachers not to put drawing pins into the walls as this can release fibres where asbestos is present.
The report states that in the future, the EFA plan to seek written assurance from all Duty Holders that their schools are compliant with existing legislation and guidance on the management of asbestos in schools.
References and further information:
Managing Asbestos in Schools 2017 Guidance
Asbestos Management in Schools Data Collection Report