to think someone needs to expose an academy group who has misappropriated funds?

[therealposieparker]

My children's school was run by an academy group who (are rumoured) to have paid their chief executive £248,000 and applied for grants for my children's school but used them on a different school!

The school is re-brokering to find a new trust, the whole thing is repulsive. Budgets are down in real terms by an astronomical level and one of my sons had such dreadful cover teachers for the last couple of years he's having to cover the entire GCSE syllabus in 6 months.

The scandal is enormous and the various rumours around the whole trust are pretty disgusting.

Go on then- expose them

I have heaps of hearsay... but nothing concrete. How would I even do it?

could you investigate using a freedom of information act?
(I don't know much about the legalities of these though....)

Private eye are good

Noone cares even when it is exposed though. The purpose of academies is to enable the rich to exploit taxpayer funded schools this way.

Maybe try approaching a local journalist or paper? Alternatively, try a national paper that has an interest in education - I think the Guardian used to don’t know if it still does. Or your MP? Or the Dept of Education? If things are as bad as you say, hopefully one of these should take an interest.

Ofsted? Local press? Corruption in academy chains is rife and was unfortunately predicted by the teaching unions (and promptly dismissed as teachers being whinging, lefty, enemies of promise).

Could you approach the audit department of your local authority? They may not be able to help but could certainly point you in the right direction - national audit office maybe?

Anti Academies Alliance are who you need to speak to, although they've been exposing them for years and not getting anywhere.

There are official complaints on record but they do not deal with the accusations of (which I don't know are true):

Huge salaries
A returning head who didn't have his job advertised so just slipped back in
Governors being given backhanders.
The Head apparently choosing that particular group because they're the only ones who would keep him in his post
Budget cuts that are crippling
Grants being granted for one thing and used for another.

Corruption in academy chains is rife and was unfortunately predicted by the teaching unions (and promptly dismissed as teachers being whinging, lefty, enemies of promise).

This^

There seems to be no stopping academies though. No matter how much parents, staff and children object it gets railroaded through, then if an academy fails there seems to be no reverse mechanism, no way back to being an LEA school.

I can't help feeling that there are several scandals brewing.

I'm just composing an email to all those suggested, with the rumours, and sending it off.

The education and skills agency might be interested, sorry SHOULD be interested too!

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/education-and-skills-funding-agency

Once you begin to regard schools as businesses, then this will happen. The genie is out of the bottle and won't be stuffed back in.

Apart from Ofsted, academies are the worst thing ever o happen to education in years.

The government have looked into it but where's the god damned money??

www.constantinian.org.uk/delegation-knight-sir-ewan-harper-retires-chairman-lambeth-

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2620205/Academy-chain-founder-paid-wife-28-000-Officials-criticise-series-dubious-financial-practices-including-20-000-fact-finding-trip-New-York.html

In the links.... He's a fucking sir... the guy who spent academy money for state school kids is a fucking sir.