ESFA | Schools Week

Grenfell rules forced us to dip into revenue, says trust

An academy trust says it had no choice but to break finance rules and use £530,000 of revenue funds to save its multi-million pound sports centre after regulation changes threatened to derail the project. Herts and Essex Multi Academy Trust (HEMAT), which operates two schools, was issued a financial warning to improve after breaching the […]

Closing trust gave CEO six -figure pay-off

An academy trust set to close over financial worries awarded its outgoing chief executive a £115,000 severance package – before handing its schools to another trust with a six-figure pension deficit. Floreat Education Academies Trust awarded chief executive Janet Hilary £115,062 in severance and redundancy pay last year, its final accounts have revealed. The trust, […]

ESFA extends deadline for academy accounts amid Covid ‘challenges’

Academy trusts will be given an extra month to submit their audited financial statements and accounts returns because of “challenges” presented by Covid-19. In a letter to academy accounting officers, Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Eileen Milner said the deadline for submission of financial statements for the year ending August 31 2020 would […]

ESFA raps trust that spent £2.4k on wellbeing conference and spa break for senior staff

An academy trust that spent over £2,400 on a wellbeing conference and spa break for senior managers has been ordered by the government to take “urgent action” to resolve issues with its financial management. The Education and Skills Funding Agency has published a report of an investigation into the Learning Academy Partnership (South West), a […]

Coronavirus: Struggling academies offered help from resource management advisers

Academies in financial difficulty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic may be offered help from the government’s cost-cutting advisers. In a letter to academy trust accounting officers, Education and Skills Funding Agency boss Eileen Milner said government “may be able to assist” schools in trouble by matching them with a school resource management adviser. […]

New academy handbook beefs-up rules on pay, whistleblowing and banning trustees

Ministers have toughened up the academies rulebook today with new guidance to make sure pay is reasonable, ensure trusts have adequate whistleblowing policies, and make clear that the government can ban misbehaving trustees. Academy trusts will also now be required to submit an annual report to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to show […]

Ormiston Academies Trust got £1.1m government loan

One of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts was lent more than £1 million by the government to help “cash flow management” last year, the second such settlement it has negotiated to takeover struggling schools. Ormiston Academies Trust, which runs 37 schools across England, received an extra £1.1 million from the Education Skills Funding Agency last […]

WCAT broke funding rules a year before its collapse, DfE review finds

The doomed Wakefield City Academy Trust broke government funding rules 16 times in 2016, according to a review of the chain’s finances. A review of financial management and governance at WCAT details a string of failures at the ailing trust, which announced last year it was walking away from all of its schools. The report […]

Trust failed to deduct tax from £145k payments to CEO’s company

An academy trust boss has stepped down after a government investigation found payments totalling £145,006 were made to a company he owned without tax or national insurance deductions. An Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation published this week revealed that Education for the 21st Century trust failed to make the deductions on payments totalling £145,006 […]