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15 April 2026

Author: Ann McGauran

Special needs funding plan shown to be ‘unreliable’

The government’s proposed new way of funding early education for children with special educational needs will fail to distribute resources adequately and result in some being “turned away”,  an expert claims. A Department for Education (DfE) consultation on changes to how free childcare and early education for three and four-year-olds is funded, including a new […]

Academy trust failed to declare payments to co-founder’s family

A crisis-hit academy chain failed to declare payments to close family members of its co-founder, including the cost of a computer delivered to one daughter at home. Details of the payments to the relatives of Lilac Sky Schools Academy Trust co-founder (LSSAT), Trevor Averre-Beeson, emerged in a revised set of accounts for 2014-15. The accounts […]

The Inspectors Call

The Inspectors Call by Peter Campling. Theatro Technis in Camden, London, until May 16 The Inspectors Call artfully portrays a school heading towards crisis. Its head, George Smith, is passionate about making his pupils’ lives better – but the truth is that he and his urban comprehensive have seen better days. George has taken up […]

Testing DfE Transparency – How easy is it to see the Register of Interests?

Were the Dead Sea Scrolls any easier to discover, I wonder? My setting was the more mundane headquarters of the Department for Education in Westminster, rather than caves in the Middle East, but at times the documents seemed just as elusive. Two weeks ago  – under orders from the editor – I was tasked with […]