Thousands paid to fund redundancies
Trustees confident on repayment
A LOAN of almost half a million pounds was paid out to help restructure secondary education in Hinckley.
The Department for Education handed John Cleveland College £440,000 to fund redundancy payments as it merged with Mount Grace High to form an all through 11-18 school.
Now operating as Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre, the governing body has developed a plan to pay back the loan by September 2020.
The amount was part of a £4.6 million bail-out to academies and free schools during 2014-15 of which the Government wants £3.9 million back.
Much of the money was given to struggling schools beset by financial difficulties. Academies apply to the Government when they are unable to balance their budgets any other way.
Between 2011 and 2013 some £9 million was paid out in deficit funding, with none of it having to be repaid.
A £500 million cash pot has been set aside by the Department for Education to convert the remaining 16,000 state schools.
Paul Craven, principal of Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre, said: “In December 2014 the business case for the reorganisation of secondary education in Hinckley and Burbage was submitted to the Education Funding Agency and subsequently approved.
“This was devised by the four secondary headteachers after a period of consultation with parents and other stakeholders and was approved by their respective governing bodies.
“The business case outlined that Redmoor High School and Hastings High School would become 11-16 schools and both John Cleveland College and Mount Grace High School would close and a ‘new’ 11-18 school would open on September 1 2015 on the former John Cleveland College site.
“The business case clearly showed that the new school - Hinckley Academy and John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre - would accrue redundancy costs of approximately £600,000 and would need a cash advance to meet these, ideally paid as a grant.
“Fortunately, the redundancy costs were lower than the anticipated amount - £440,000 - and the academy was given a loan to meet these costs.
“The trustees have put together a detailed financial plan to make sure this amount can be repaid by September 2020.”