A report by the Auditor General for Wales has concluded that although there have been significant improvements made to the schools estate in recent years, there is still a long way to go before all school buildings in Wales are fit for purpose.
The report found that, in a number of local authorities, the effective planning of capital investment in schools has been hampered by a lack of reliable information about the state of school buildings and a reluctance to take decisions on school rationalisation following falls in pupil numbers.
Inadequate capital investment in school buildings and poor levels of maintenance, particularly during the 1980s and most of the 1990s, had left the schools estate in Wales in poor repair and not well suited to delivering the modern curriculum. And, while there are now new schools in most part of Wales, few councils have a clear understanding of how they will fund the necessary improvements to the remainder of their schools. Some local authorities also do not have enough capacity and expertise to deliver a sizeable programme of capital investment.
The Auditor General says that in 2003, the Welsh Government set a target for all schools to be ‘fit for purpose’ by 2010 and committed to invest £560 million between 2004-05 and 2007-08, and to maintain high levels of investment until the end of the decade. However, the objective of making all schools ‘fit for purpose’ was only defined in broad terms, which resulted in uncertainty about the quality of school buildings that local authorities should aim to achieve.
The Welsh Government also set out expectations that education asset management plans should be in place by 2003, but a significant number of local authorities still did not have robust asset management plans in place at the time of our audit during 2008-09. This meant that the Assembly Government did not have sufficient reliable information to enable it to target grant on the areas of greatest need. It was also unable to adequately assess the progress being made towards meetings its objectives for improvements in school buildings.
Although the situation is starting to improve the report highlights that the then Labour Welsh Government set targets it could not meet and could not measure. As a result many schools missed out. Even today the Government does not have the information, money or focus to make a significant difference.
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