Schools ‘lose millions’ to failed trust
Governors fear savings are gone forever
FRESH CALLS have been made for an investigation into the running and financing of a beleaguered academy chain amid fears schools are unlikely to ever see the return of millions of pounds – including money raised by parents. Governors have told The Yorkshire Post they fear the cash given to Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT) which had been built up for equipment and resources was “dead and gone”.
Some of the money had been raised through fairs and fundraising and was earmarked to support disadvantaged children to purchase uniforms and go on school trips. WCAT made a shock announcement days into the new school term last September that it was pulling out of running all of its 21 Yorkshire schools after the trust’s board said it could not provide the quality of education its pupils deserved.
Claims have since been made that money from its schools, including £2m between those in Bradford and at least £1.5m among those in Wakefield, was channelled into the trust’s central finances. Now as the academic year enters its final weeks,
The Yorkshire Post has learnt the schools are still to receive confirmation over how much money they will get back, prompting new demands for a public investigation into what went wrong with WCAT and into oversight and accountability within the whole academy system.
Hemsworth Academy had £200,000 which had been raised over several years through fairs and fundraising, and £216,000 from a capital fund for future building work, transferred to the trust. Similarly, £300,000 from Heath View school in Wakefield, which is now Park Hill, had been earmarked for school improvements.
High Crags in Shipley built up a surplus of £276,000 after a spending moratorium was imposed by the trust – which MP Philip Davies told MPs at education questions had then been transferred to the trust.
Mike Pollard, a Bradford councillor and governor at High Crags,, said: “It’s money that our school is never going to see again.”
Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth, where four primary schools and one secondary were run by WCAT, said: “There’s a lot of unanswered questions and it is time that the full truth came out about what happened. Why wasn’t the school system able to deliver for the children? It is for the Government to provide those answers.”
A Department for Education spokesman said new trusts had now been confirmed for 20 of the 21 Wakefield City Academy Trust schools. “Once all the schools have been transferred, WCAT will focus on the orderly wind-up of the trust, with oversight from the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the Department,” the spokesman added.
The department has previously said WCAT was taking a “trustwide” perspective of its finances.
It looked at allegations of assets being moved “inappropriately” from WCAT schools but had found “no evidence of this”.
A police investigation also found that no crimes were committed when the trust suddenly stopped running the 21 schools.
This followed a motion passed by Wakefield Council calling for police to investigate the organisation’s finances. Accounts published at the start of the year show it is expected WCAT will return a surplus when it is wound up and the Government has said it will work with the schools’ new trusts to redistribute any cash left over.
Why wasn’t the school system able to deliver for the children? Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth.
SCHOOLS HAD spent many years building up money which was swallowed up by a failed academy trust, governors and MPs have told The Yorkshire Post.
They claim cash which had been set aside to cope with expected budget cuts, pay for equipment and refurbishments and support disadvantaged children should be returned to individual schools that were being run by Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT).
But nine months after WCAT announced that it was pulling out of running all of its 21 Yorkshire schools, they still have not received the money.
Kevin Swift, a Wakefield councillor and chairman of the governing body at Wakefield City Academy, said about £800,000 was transferred from the school to the trust in 2015, on the understanding it was a loan.
But he said he feared the cash was being treated as a “dead and gone” issue following WCAT’s demise.
“The prospect of getting the money back looks bad,” he said, adding that the academy’s financial position with its new trust was still being agreed.
He said the academy’s governing board felt the money “rightfully belongs to the school”.
He said: “It would have been very, very useful money in terms of supporting the education of children at City Academy.
“The budgeting that the school did over a period of years was very prudent and was done with the anticipation that various factors affecting funding would mean that we would be moving into leaner times.”
He called for the Department for Education to put a detailed spotlight on what had happened, adding: “It is a really major collapse and it is wrong that the DfE should be able to brush it under the carpet.”
Sally Kincaid, Wakefield’s branch secretary of the National Education Union, said a halt WCAT put on spending, except on “essential items”, ahead of its demise caused a shortage of resources at a time when schools were already experiencing hardship due to cuts.
She claimed children were having to write on the back of work done by pupils in previous years and exercise books were being reused, while one school had to wait several weeks for money to be released to tackle a problem with “rats running riot”.
She said: “Teaching assistants were having to buy glue sticks. It was just scandalous.”
The spending freeze meant surplus cash at High Crags in Shipley rose from £178,000, which had been built up prior to the school becoming an academy, to more than £250,000, said Mike Pollard, a Bradford councillor and governor at the school who fears they will never see the cash again.
Angela Rayner, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said the Government needed to tell parents and teachers how it would stop it happening again.
She said: “The Government needs to come clean and tell us what they knew. If we’re going to learn the lessons we need to know the facts.”
Fears over the cash comes after the leader of the academy chain which has taken over six of WCAT’s schools told how he planned to lift the “dark cloud” that had been cast by the collapsed organisation.
Martyn Oliver, chief executive officer of Outwood Grange Academy Trust (OGAT) unveiled ambitious plans to The Yorkshire Post earlier this year as part of his vision to improve educational outcomes and rebuild crumbling buildings.
He also stressed OGAT would not take on any debt and none of the schools would start in deficit, with detailed packages in place to ensure the schools’ needs would be met.
Speaking at the time he said: “The WCAT schools are coming across with zero deficit, no surplus and no deficit.”
Teaching assistants were having to buy glue sticks. Sally Kincaid, Wakefield’s branch secretary of the National Education Union.
IF PUBLIC confidence is to be maintained in the academy programme so favoured by the Department for Education, Ministers will order – without further prevarication – an immediate inquiry into the Wakefield City Academies Trust’s finances.
Not only did its abrupt collapse at the start of the academic year leave 21 Yorkshire schools in limbo, but some appear to have lost considerable financial reserves accrued by years of fundraising and sound financial management.
If academies are to operate outside the auspices of LEAs, not only must they conform to the high standards and protocols that are rightly expected of all council-run schools, but there must be total transparency over their accounts – another point repeatedly made by this newspaper.
Schools are not businesses. Their primary responsibility is the education of their children. Yet, judging by the disturbing revelations that have come to light with the Wakefield trust, and the eyewatering salaries commanded by ‘executives’ at school chains elsewhere, an inquiry is clearly needed to establish best practice, scrutiny arrangements and remind education leaders of their obligations to local communities.