By Helen Mooney
13 October 2009
Schools and local authorities have been accused of disregarding safety after a report found that fewer than 500 of the UK’s 32,000 schools have sprinkler systems to combat fires.
Even some schools built or refurbished under the government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative lacked sprinkler systems, an October 12 report by insurance firm Zurich Municipal found. It also showed that the cost of schools fires stood at £65m in 2008.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families told Public Finance that 72 of the 127 schools to have benefited from the BSF investment programme were fitted with sprinkler systems.
Responding to the numbers, Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, highlighted the ‘apparent disregard being paid at local level in some of the new build schools to guidance and regulations designed to ensure a safe and appropriate environment’.
‘Union members have raised a catalogue of issues that illustrate a failure by designers, builders and those signing off plans at local authority and school level to ensure that the new builds rectify problems of the past and are fully fit for purpose,’ she said.
Keates called for ‘much more rigour’ at local level to scrutinise plans and designs for school buildings to ‘ensure safety and value for public money’.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘We would encourage all local authorities to include fire suppression systems – sprinklers - in new schools. The initial financial outlay is relatively small and will be recouped through lower insurance premiums.’
13 October 2009
Schools and local authorities have been accused of disregarding safety after a report found that fewer than 500 of the UK’s 32,000 schools have sprinkler systems to combat fires.
Even some schools built or refurbished under the government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative lacked sprinkler systems, an October 12 report by insurance firm Zurich Municipal found. It also showed that the cost of schools fires stood at £65m in 2008.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families told Public Finance that 72 of the 127 schools to have benefited from the BSF investment programme were fitted with sprinkler systems.
Responding to the numbers, Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, highlighted the ‘apparent disregard being paid at local level in some of the new build schools to guidance and regulations designed to ensure a safe and appropriate environment’.
‘Union members have raised a catalogue of issues that illustrate a failure by designers, builders and those signing off plans at local authority and school level to ensure that the new builds rectify problems of the past and are fully fit for purpose,’ she said.
Keates called for ‘much more rigour’ at local level to scrutinise plans and designs for school buildings to ‘ensure safety and value for public money’.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘We would encourage all local authorities to include fire suppression systems – sprinklers - in new schools. The initial financial outlay is relatively small and will be recouped through lower insurance premiums.’
