By Ashley Young And Sheila Mckenzie-
Hundreds of thousands of pounds given to academy trusts, fraud investigations and concerns over the t have been written off, according to annual accounts for both the Department Of Education and Skills Funding Agency.
The annual report which the Department says is a reflection of its role in the education and skills landscape, broadly reported on its operational system, detailing its policies on risk management , value for money studies, investigations, research, bonuses, and other key areas of its engagements. The report highlights increases in the volume of interactions with these users of their service and an expansion
of the scope and reach of our activities.
The Department proudly claims to have managed its budget of £57 bn effectively in a year it says was ”one of change and consolidation at a structural level and operation level”. It says it has made ”a commitment to enhance and embed quality assurance across analytical models”. With a quality assurance framework which compels the use of its prescribed standards for all modelling, the Department gave a comprehensive account of its overall operations.
LOSSES
The Department put its fruitless payment and constructive losses at £300,oo0, adding that it awarded 126 contracts with a total planned expenditure valued at £360m on activities will operate from 1 April
2019 to 31 July 2021 supporting almost 200,000 individuals. Gender pay gap reporting
DfE’s median gender pay gap as at June 2018 was 5.6%. The previous figure as at June 2017
was 5.9%. The figure for 2019 is not available at the time of publication. The figure will be
published by the Government Equalities Office late in 2019 and will be included in the Group’s
2019-20 ARA.
RESEARCH
It states that the Department Of Education spent £29 million on research this year, up from £19.6 million last year and £16.7 million in 2016-17.The report reveals 38 allegations of fraud in academy trusts to the ESFA , 12 site visits, including four financial management and governance reviews and two formal investigations. It also carried forward six ongoing investigations into academy trusts from previous years. It reveals the completion of Nineteen investigations into academy trusts in 2019. with one irregularity and 14 ongoing cases are ongoing, with nine nearing completion. None of the investigations into academic trusts were fraud related.
Nine complaints relating to the ESFA itself were escalated to the parliamentary and health service ombudsman this year, but none were accepted for investigation.
OUT OF COURT SETTLEMENT
The publication reveals a £3m out of court settlement with an unknown third party. It does not reveal the nature of the dispute or who the third party is. It also reveals expectations by The ESFA to lose staff in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. It also reveals that the ESFA is preparing to “deal with a reduction in workforce” if the UK leaves the European Union without a deal, resulting in staff being seconded to other government departments.
The accounts say the agency has agreed “where work could be slowed down or paused” in this case. The Department Of Education and 5 ESFA bosses received up to £15k in bonuses each . It further reveals that Mike Green, the chief operations officer and director-general of the department’s operations directorate, was one of two Department Of Education civil servants to get a bonus this year, receiving between £10,000 and £15,000.
INCREASED BONUSES
Among the information released was a payment of £5,000 and £10,000 was given to deputy permanent secretary Indra Morris. Five ESFA bosses also received bonuses of between £10,000 and £15,000 this year. Recipients of the bonuses include the director of intervention Peter Mucklow, acting director of academies Mike Pettifer, director of apprenticeships Keith Smith, director of the transactions unit Matthew Atkinson, and director of technical education Jennifer Coupland ,who will be leaving the ESFA to head up the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education in November.
ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner’s also enjoyed an increased bonus of up to £5,000, up from 2017 last year, when five bosses, including Mucklow and Smith, received between £5,000 and £10,000. Rye Academy Trust closed the Rye Studio School in October, and transferred its remaining primary and secondary schools to the Aquinas Church of England Education Trust this year. It adds that Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC closed last August and re-opened as UTC Heathrow under the Activate Learning Education Trust, while UTC Plymouth was taken over by Reach South Academy Trust in October. Overpaid grants at the Robert Owen Academy Trust which closed last August owing £662,000 were also written off, the report reveals.
GRANT OVERPAYMENTS
The Report explains that in certain circumstances over-payments of grants can occur when” grant payment profiles for educational bodies are based on expected learner numbers which are not supported by actual numbers”. In the case of academies funded based on expected pupil numbers
that are not matched by actual numbers sourced from the October pupil census, a recovery the over-funding across the rest of the funding year is imperative.
Grants were waived by two schools that closed in August 2017 also had grants waived. They include Bolton Wanderers Free School, which owed £353,000 and the Future Tech Studio School which owed £317,000. Over the year, the ESFA wrote to 213 academy trusts that pay more than £150,000 to one employee or have more than two employees on more than £100,000, asking them to justify the high salaries.
SPECIAL PAYMENTS
BReach2 .This money included the cost of recruiting additional staff for school improvement activities, like restructuring the curriculum, but the Department Of Education accounts say Birmingham City Council also contributed funds for deficit removal, capital improvements and staff reorganisation.my Trust was given £414,000 to support the conversion of Springfield Primary School in Birmingham.
This money included the cost of recruiting additional staff for school improvement activities, like restructuring the curriculum, but the DfE’s accounts say Birmingham City Council also contributed funds for deficit removal, capital improvements and staff reorganisation.