The prominent boss of a troubled academy trust saddled with a multi-million-pound deficit has resigned following a leave of absence.
Schools Week previously revealed how the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership had racked up seven-figure losses after purchasing iPads as part of an initiative to provide 11,000 devices for all pupils and staff.
And now it has been announced that Richard Gill, its chief executive, has left after almost 10 years in the job.
Lee Miller, deputy CEO of the Think Schools Academy Trust in the south east, moved into Gill’s vacant position on an interim basis earlier this week.
£4.5m government loans
Arthur Terry chair Helen Stevenson and vice chair Heather Morris said: “After taking a leave of absence, the chief executive officer has now formally resigned from his role.
“The board would like to thank him for his service to the Trust and wishes him well for the future.”
In 2024, Arthur Terry was issued with a notice to improve by the DfE on financial grounds after being offered a £1.5 million government loan and posting an almost £4 million deficit.
But 2024-25 accounts, last month, show the 24-school MAT received more “deficit funding”, as it slipped to an £8.4 million deficit.
In all, it has been loaned £3.5 million, all of which “had been drawn down by the year end”.
The accounts added trust chiefs had struck an agreement in principle with officials for “an additional £1 million of repayable funding”.
Gill ‘worked closely with ministers’
Gill had led the trust since 2016. A prominent figure in the schools world, he also chairs the Teaching School Hubs Council and is a national leader of education (NLE).
The NLE programme offered help to underperforming schools by sending in headteachers or trust bosses to address governance, leadership and finance issues in underperforming schools.
It has since been replaced by the government’s RISE school improvement scheme.
Gill’s profile on the Teaching School Hubs Council website says he “works closely with government ministers and policy advisers”, speaks regularly at conferences and was awarded a CBE in 2020 for services to education.
Stevenson and Morris said Miller will “will lead the trust through this period, drawing on his extensive experience of supporting academy trusts through financial recovery and organisational change”.
They will focus on “continuing to develop and implement a financial recovery plan that will restore stability and ensure the trust is on a sustainable footing, with pupils’ education and wellbeing at the heart of every decision”.
Your thoughts