financial notice to improve

Bailed-out academy boss set for £150k payout, despite £1.1m budget hole

A single academy trust facing closure has set aside a £150,000 payout for its chief executive, despite reporting a £1.1 million budget black hole last year and needing two taxpayer bailouts. The Castle Trust is set to be wound up after it was stripped of Delce Academy in Kent last year following an “inadequate” rating. […]

Speed read: ‘Academy trust handbook’ 2021 published as DfE rebrands key guide

The DfE has rebranded the academies financial handbook as the academy trust handbook, with ministers dubbing the latest edition a “one stop shop” for academy leaders. The update has also seen financial notices to improve renamed as “notices to improve”, to reflect that the warnings issued to academies sometimes cover “broader governance issues”. Baroness Berridge, […]

DfE blocks MAT’s bid to take shares in outsourcing firm

An outsourcing firm has urged the government not to be “hung up on fear of the different” after officials thwarted a multi-academy trust’s bid to take shares in the for-profit company. Schools Week revealed in March that Transforming Futures Trust (TFT) had signed a £1 million deal to outsource most of its central staff and […]

ESFA investigates finances of Trinity Academy London Trust

The government is investigating alleged financial irregularities at an academy trust in south London that was issued a redacted finance warning notice earlier this year. A financial notice from March, published last Friday, ordered the Trinity Academy London Trust – which ran the Trinity Academy in Brixton – to hand over full minutes and notes […]

DfE threatens to reclaim £110k loan unless school joins a multi-academy trust

The government has threatened to forcibly claim back a £110,000 loan issued to a single-academy trust unless it joins a MAT. The threat comes as a school leaders’ union issues a warning over the “serious implications” of conditions attached to such emergency loans. A financial notice to improve issued to Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland […]

Academy trust rapped over boss’ £23,000 ex-gratia fee

A government investigation has uncovered a swathe of financial and governance failings at a single academy trust – including “potential irregularity” over football tickets costing more than £4,000. The investigation into Westfield Academy, a mixed secondary school with a sixth form in Hertfordshire, also found a former finance boss had been paid a £22,600 honorarium […]

London secondary school hit with financial notice to improve over failure to balance budget

A secondary school in Richmond upon Thames has been handed a financial notice to improve by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), after failing to set a balanced budget for 2017-18. The school, rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted after an inspection in January, has also failed to “establish strong internal financial controls”, according to […]

Financial warning for the academy trust that sent leaders to New Zealand

An academy trust that spent over £12,000 on a trip abroad for two of its leaders has been handed a financial notice to improve by the government. Silver Birch Academy Trust now has to run most of its spending decisions past the government and must make changes to the way it is run to avoid […]

Troubled UCAT trust to shed four schools after finances warning

Four schools run by the troubled University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) will be rebrokered to new sponsors following the intervention of a government schools commissioner. Christine Quinn, the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, has “agreed with the trust to initially rebroker four schools” in order to “release capacity”, according to a parliamentary written […]