Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in (a) Wansbeck constituency and (b) Northumberland require essential maintenance work as of 14 December 2023; and what estimate her Department has made of the total cost of that work.

Responsibility for keeping buildings safe and well maintained lies with schools and their responsible bodies, such as local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary-aided (VA) bodies. The department supports them by providing access to annual capital funding, delivering major rebuilding programmes, and offering guidance and support.

Responsible bodies in England, depending on their size and type, are either eligible to receive annual School Condition Allocation (SCA) funding to use on improving the condition of their schools, or are instead able to bid into the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) each year for specific capital projects. Schools in England also receive funding to spend on their capital priorities or contribute to larger projects through an annual Devolved Formula Capital allocation (DFC). Details on SCA, CIF, and DFC can be found on GOV.UK.

In the 2023/24 financial year, Northumberland County Council, which includes Wansbeck constituency, has been allocated £3,901,192 of SCA funding. It is for Northumberland to allocate this funding across its maintained schools based on local knowledge of condition need, prioritising keeping schools safe and operational. Academies and VA schools in Northumberland will have either received SCA funding through their trust or VA group or will instead have been invited to bid into the CIF for their condition need. Outcomes for CIF for 2023/24 are published on GOV.UK.

Local authority schools in Northumberland have also been allocated a total of £594,962 in Devolved Formula Capital in 2023/24 to spend on their own capital priorities. SCA and DFC allocations for 2023/24 are published on GOV.UK.

In addition to condition capital funding, the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) will transform buildings at 500 schools in Engand over the next decade, prioritising schools in poor condition and with evidence of potential safety issues. The department has announced 400 schools to date, including 239 in December 2022. The programme includes Ringway Primary School in the Wansbeck constituency.