Insurance specialists at the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) have highlighted how they worked with the government to support schools in England to reduce their carbon footprints.

Background

The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) is an alternative to insurance for schools and academies where losses that arise are covered by government funds. The Department for Education oversees the arrangement and GAD provides actuarial support in areas such as pricing and provisioning.

Building back better

Traditional insurance looks to replace like-for-like if schools suffer significant damage following a fire, flood, or storm. The RPA has additional flexibility to consider the way in which school buildings and equipment should be restored.

Rebuilding after a major loss can provide a cost-effective opportunity to ‘build back better’ and reduce a school’s carbon footprint.

Heat pump pilot

A pilot project at Morecambe Bay Academy saw a ground source heat pump installed following flood damage to the school’s boiler room.

Rather than replacing the gas-fired boiler, the RPA used restoration funds towards the installation of a ground source heat pump. The use of this heat pump can be used to help forecast the cost and carbon savings of future interventions.

Future interventions

GAD says it has supported the government in its aim to establish a more prospective method of introducing heat pumps in English schools. It used detailed data on the physical condition of buildings to list schools where the boilers will need replacing soon.

It also:

• modelled the potential carbon savings connected to these initiatives
• provided high level estimates to support immediate pilots
• collaborated with other government departments to develop more detailed models

For the wider heat decarbonisation programme, GAD analysed data to provide the initial list of schools where an intervention was most likely to be needed.