The concrete crisis that is threatening the closure of hundreds of schools nationwide is engulfing the government on Westminster's first day back from the summer recess, with Rishi Sunak under growing pressure to give extra money to headteachers dealing with the fallout.
One former Conservative education minister told PoliticsHome that schools had suffered from "years and years" of Treasury neglect and underspending, and that they believed the government would inevitably have to go beyond the education department's existing budget to deal with the chaos being caused by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
Last week the Department for Education confirmed that more than 150 schools across England were deemed to be at risk of collapse as a result of potentially faulty RAAC, forcing many to close or partially close ahead of the start of term. The government has faced criticism of failing to sufficiently fund building safety programmes that could have averted the crisis.
The Chair of the Commission on Young Lives has warned that the closure of schools will have a "really disturbing" impact on pupils.
