To be shocked at the dispatches programme tonight about the abuse of funds by academies

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Just watched this on channel 4 tonight. Any teachers watched it and can comment?one of our local schools is shortly to become an academy and we have a child with special
Needs. Scary stuff and hard to believe they are getting away with it

I missed this. Doesn't surprise me. Will catch up on more 4.

I am no longer a teacher but saw this happening in my last school. Things, which as the programme explained, are not actually against the rules but which any reasonable person would think were bent. In academy chains of several schools there's really big money to be made.

All those people on 6 figure incomes and meals out with bills of £700! As the reporter kept saying this is tax payers money.

Driving a Jaguar and charging for all expenses like his wife's insurance!

Doesn't surprise me in the least, I'm watching it on catch up now. I work for a Local Authority and in our dept it's seen as a terrible thing, schools simply cannot be run as businesses!!! They're not accountable to the LA any more and take liberties!

As a teacher I'm completely disgusted. Schools funding is being massively cut, every decision comes down to fucking money, with the actual children appearing to come quite far down the list. If you are a child who is struggling but isnt Pupil Premium then you can forget it completely it seems.

Lots of teachers purchase plenty of small resources out of their own money.

And these arseholes think nothing of spunking the taxpayers money on cars and fancy eating, whilst telling schools they need to save money.

Some of us have been saying this for over a year on mumsnet and most people just don't believe us. Academy chains can get away with murder. They absolutely waste public money- the biggest one in our region is full of old mates, mainly men, ex-school improvement people who were past their best, who local authorities got rid off with big redundancy payments, and are employed by this academy chain in advisor roles or director roles - but they are desk and meeting jobs paid fortunes. Disgraceful.
Money given to educate children from taxes is lining the pockets of elderly, poor quality, highly paid cronies. The CEO employs his wife as one of them, as well as 'old pals'. The schools they run have poor outcomes for children on the whole.

I'm not in the slightest bit shocked - most people saw it coming a mile off

Make education about profit and money at the expense of the kids

Some of us have been saying this for over a year on mumsnet and most people just don't believe us

and this!

Can mumsnet not do something about this? It is outrageous that they are getting away with this.
I worry about the future of special needs children as well

Apologies I haven't seen any other threads on this - what section, education?

And this is why I have left teaching. I worked in one of the first academies around 10 years ago and was disgusted by what I saw going on concerning money and the professionalism of the senior staff. I left to work in a comprehensive which was what I considered a 'typical' school and I loved it, the students were looked after and the stretched budget went directly to the education of the students. Over the years many roles have changed and then it became an academy, although not part of a chain. Gradually, the staff who have been employed by the academy all have the same mindset that I saw years ago and now it is going the same way.

There is no way to fight this, any teachers who clock what is going on and suggest they know about it (nevermind actually trying to do anything about it) are forced out through the lovely regime of informal capability. People have been acknowledging this for years yet we are not being listened to; academies are about making money and don't get me started on the treatment of students who have SEN or even those who struggle.

Doesn't surprise me at all. There was a thread on here a while ago saying about this sort of thing happening.

Shocking but not surprising. What was going to happen, really, when you embed schools within a corporate structure? Though I don't see why there can't be a scale of acceptable expenses that is consistent with the rest of the public sector.

Some trusts are making classroom staff redundant now, or making them all reapply for their jobs. Not enough money for that sort of thing, apparently.

Still, good to know that our kids are an opportunity for some chancers to coin it at taxpayers' expense.

I wonder if MNHQ could persuade Justine Greening to come on for a webchat?

Another one here who is not in the least surprised. The reality is that, in many and probably most cases, the whole system is a means for friends of the government to get their noses in the trough of large amounts of government money. Gove was particularly guilty of this.

I work in an academy run by ATT (Jaguar expenses) we have been told there isn't enough money for basic resources along with the redundancies we have had from support staff. The signs have been there all along but no one listened until now.

Shockingly, privatisation does lead to people making money, yes. This is what teachers have been complaining about it for ages. But no-one listens. Well, Nicky Morgan did U turn on the "all schools must be academies" for the time being.

I really hope this programme raises appropriate outrage.

The shocked reaction of people makes me angry. Teachers have been warning about this for ages! The government selling off schools to be made into acadamies to Tory donors as a money making venture is not a secret.

I'm in the north and it hasn't happened much around us so I apologise that I have had my head in the sand about this. Where would precious threads have been - in education?

Have not watched it yet but Dispatches reported on an area dh specialises in and their reporting was sensationalist and wildly inaccurate. Keep a cynical mind - Dispatches are selling a story, they need to make it interesting.

I don't think there was any sensationalising those expenses claims. They are what they are (a disgrace).

but Stately part of my job is to track pupil specific funding and believe me it's not being spent where it should - my own experiences with lots of academy chains is similar to teachers posting above - lots of redundancy, lowering standards, kicking out SEND pupils and not really getting 'outstanding' OFSTED reports

It wont be long before there are more chains and schools going bankrupt - and who will pick up the pieces?

It's inevitable when schools are run as businesses. I'm surprised that people are surprised by this. Thankfully, I'm in Scotland where each school is run by the local education authority still.

I'm an ex-teacher and I'd say it was spot on. It is scandalous what is happening to our education system

Husband and wife team at the top of one of the academy trusts - he on £200k and she on £170k. Much higher exclusion of special needs children than in other schools.