Academies

Lilac Sky scandal: £3m of ‘contentious, irregular or improper’ payments revealed

Government investigation 'outcome' report comes eight years after intervention, but contains just three pages and few details

Government investigation 'outcome' report comes eight years after intervention, but contains just three pages and few details

24 Oct 2024, 16:09

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More than £3 million of spending by the since collapsed Lilac Sky Schools Trust was deemed “contentious, irregular or improper”, a government report today has stated.

Eight years after starting its investigation into the trust, the Department for Education has published the “outcome” of its probe.

It follows a BBC documentary last month, based on Schools Week’s reporting into the case which led to the trust’s founder Trevor Averre- Beeson being banned from schools.

Government has refused repeated attempts to publish its full investigation. And it has, for what looks like the first time, instead published an investigation “outcome” report.

Unlike full investigation reports, it has few details about what the probe found. But it does provide for the first time the scale of the issues.

24 rule breaches, report suggests

The report states £3.3 million of expenditure by the trust was “deemed either contentious, irregular or improper” – making it one of the biggest academy scandals in monetary terms.

This includes “expenditure with companies, and recruitment of individuals where connections existed, without following a due process” and breaking funding rules. There was also “some instances of misuse of public funds, including expenditure on alcohol”.

The report also suggests the trust breached academy funding rules at least 24 times.

But only short summaries of what the breaches were are outlined. They include “connected party relationships”, “tax arrangements”, “trading with connected parties” and “borrowing”.

The new government said it would publish the outcomes of the investigation last month after Beeson’s attempt to overturn his ban was dropped.

Still no investigation report (after 8 years)

The Lilac Sky Schools Trust was closed in 2016. Its nine schools were rebrokered as the government investigated financial “impropriety”.

Last year the government barred the trust’s founder and chief executive Averre-Beeson and his successor Christopher Bowler from managing schools, citing “inappropriate conduct”.

Government troubleshooters sent in to the trust at the time had found “significant irregular financial and governance practice”.

Annual accounts detailed spending on luxury alcohol, council grants paid straight into Averre-Beeson’s consultancy bank account and severance paid to staff who were then hired as consultants the next day.

But the previous government repeatedly refused to publish its report, previously claiming the investigation was ongoing eight years later.

The DfE has been approached for comment.

Averre-Beeson has previously claimed in court a lot of the DfE’s evidence was a “broad character assassination”. Some of it was “not accurate” and other elements were “hearsay”, he said.

The court heard that his ban was based on five allegations, with evidence from the government’s witness in an “enormous file” that had “dozens of pages”.

Averre-Beeson has been contacted for comment.

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