ADCS president calls for greater council oversight of academy funding

Alan Wood said local authorities should be given powers to audit academies to ensure resources are properly spent on improving pupils' education, an issue highlighted yesterday in a report commissioned by the education select committee as part of its inquiry into academies and free schools.

Conflicts of interest in academy sponsorship arrangements, compiled by researchers at the Institute of Education, warns that weaknesses in the regulation of academy sponsorship arrangements by third-party organisations leaves public money at risk of misuse.

Graham Stuart, chair of the committee, said the weaknesses highlighted in the report means that children’s education could be at risk and must be tackled to protect their best interests.

Wood said councils’ powers are currently limited to “offering opinions about value for money” to academy trusts, meaning there is little they can do to tackle the problem.

He said: “There is no role for the local authority, which is a great shame because local authorities have well developed models of auditing for educational institutions and are, therefore, very experienced in them.

“The prime concern is that there is a public mechanism for ensuring that public monies provided to schools is being spent to the purpose of its allocation, and that’s true for all schools.”

Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary of policy at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said the findings of the report suggest that the government does not have proper oversight of academies.

“It is children and young people who lose out when academies fail," she said. “ATL’s education manifesto calls for an end to schools being run for profit, either directly or indirectly.

“We call for the establishment of a ‘fit and proper persons’ test, and a register of interests, for those involved in sponsoring, brokering or running academies or free schools.”

Responding to the report, a Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are clear that no individual or organisation with a governing relationship to an academy can make a profit from providing it with services.

“We have also made clear to all academies the consequences of breaching those rules and will not hesitate to take action where we think that has happened.”