News

‘Reckless’ spending and academy rule breakers: DfE reveals its school leader banning powers

School staff involved in “reckless budgeting” or breaching academy funding rules can be banned from the profession, new government...

John Dickens
John Dickens
News

New academy rules put trust autonomy at risk, say sector leaders

Sector leaders are warning the new academy trust handbook could undermine board autonomy , and demanding the government confirm...

Tom Belger
Tom Belger
News

Academy trusts to face tougher financial checks

Academy trusts can expect tougher checks on their finances as auditors sharpen up following high-profile auditing scandals – and...

John Dickens
John Dickens
Opinion

Beware the government’s sleight of hand on academy finances

The government’s new method for calculating school budgets obscures the true number of schools in financial deficit, explains Jon Andrews...

Expert Contributor
JON ANDREWS
News

Related-party transactions in schools: the debate

Schools should be forced to run related-party transactions past the government for prior approval, a powerful parliamentary committee has...

Jess Staufenberg
Jess Staufenberg
News

Government investigates severance payouts in academy trusts

Government finance bosses are investigating several unnamed academy trusts that failed to get Treasury approval for hefty payments made...

Jess Staufenberg
Jess Staufenberg
News

Academy trust broke rules over CEO’s £8,000 four-star hotel stays

An academy trust in financial trouble breached government rules after paying nearly £8,000 so its chief executive could stay...

John Dickens
John Dickens
News

The 8 most important findings from the government’s new-look academies report

The Education Committee has today published a “dry run” of how the Department for Education plans to report finances...

John Dickens
John Dickens
News

A third of academy trusts paid businesses linked to their staff, and 7 other school finance findings

The education select committee has quizzed senior civil servants as part of their latest hearing into academy finances. Schools...

John Dickens
John Dickens