Teachers warn against asbestos complacency

THE Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Education (DfE) have “misplaced” confidence in local authorities’ management of asbestos in schools, says the NUT teaching union.

The comment came in response to a joint HSE and DfE survey and follow-up inspection programme which concluded that the majority of local authorities in England with “system build” schools have procedures and precautions in place to manage asbestos safely. The term “system build” is generally used to describe schools constructed between 1945 and 1980, many of which have structural columns fire-proofed with asbestos and enclosed by metal casings or cladding.

The union welcomed the survey as a step in the right direction. But its general secretary, Christine Blower, said: “The NUT questions how it can be claimed that the majority of local authorities meet legal requirements in terms of asbestos management when only 42 were actually visited by HSE inspectors. The other 110 simply completed an on-line survey, making the survey essentially a paper exercise, reliant on local authorities admitting to failings in their system of asbestos management in order to trigger a visit from the HSE.”

With more and more schools opting out of local authority control, the union is concerned that standards of asbestos management will fall further. It repeated its long-standing demand for a full independent national audit of asbestos in all schools.

The results from the survey and follow-up inspections are available at www.hse.gov.uk/services/education/information.htm#asbestos.