Some schools in England must shut buildings amid concrete safety fears - but does this affect West Sussex?

The UK Government has told more than 100 schools, colleges and nurseries in England to immediately close buildings that are made with a concrete prone to collapse, unless safety measures can be put in place.

The material is known as Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).

The county council said ‘it is aware of the RAAC issue’ and has ‘already completed a review of records for WSCC maintained schools’.

A spokesperson added: “No WSCC maintained schools have been identified from records as containing any indicating RAAC construction and to provide added confidence physical inspections of all maintained school blocks constructed between 1930-2000 is being commissioned.

“We can confirm no West Sussex County Council maintained schools will be immediately shutting due to this issue.”

Gillian Keegan, the Secretary of State for Education and MP for Chichester, said recent cases have ‘reduced our confidence’ in buildings with confirmed RAAC.

She added: “We are taking the precautionary and proactive step to change our approach and have published guidance to that effect today (Thursday, August 31).

"This decision has been made with an abundance of caution and to prioritise the safety of children, pupils and staff ahead of the start of the new term.”

Mrs Keegan said more than 50 schools, colleges and maintained nursery schools have already been supported to ‘put mitigations in place this year’. She confirmed 104 further education settings that are ‘immediately impacted’ have been spoken to, adding: “I want to reassure parents and teachers that the vast majority of schools will be unaffected.

"Of those impacted, the majority will remain open for face-to-face learning for all pupils, because only a small part of the site is affected. Children should attend school as normal in September, unless families hear differently.”

On its website, the government said schools ‘must vacate all spaces or buildings that are known to contain RAAC’ – unless they ‘already have mitigations in place to make the building safe’.

A spokesperson added: “We’re working hard to make sure any disruption to education is kept to a minimum.”