oh dear, another v embarrassing free school débâcle

[edam]

This time involving the Tory party deputy chairman. Serious financial mismanagement to the tune of £90k. Can't link as on tablet but see BBC news, king's science academy Bradford.

Tory bigwig Alan Lewis's company trousers £300k a year in rent for the site. And the Tories have the cheek to call the unemployed scroungers!

It wasn't picked up by journalists. It was picked up by auditors. The auditors told the police,, but the police didn't see it as something they needed to take further at the time.

Later, the journalists got hold of the auditor's report and it became news.

If it was the market rent for a suitable site, then it wouldn't be a problem.

It's the fabricated invoices bit that is alarming.

NAO is due to report "this winter" on Free School set ups, including location and site acquisition

Anyone know exactly when the report might emerge? NAO usually work to a very high standard, and do not toe the line of the Government of the day.

The National Audit Office monitor all Government spending, including spending on Free schools, and you're right that they're independent. Even if the DfE wanted to cover things up to save red faces, they would need to answer to the NAO.

In this case it was an Educational Funding Agency report that was leaked to the press, but the financial details in the report will have been contributed by independent auditors.

scaevola it's the fabricated invoices in relation to propert owned by Tory deputy chairman that is doubly alarming!

Straggle, the school fabricated some invoices for rent. That doesn't implicate the property owner. If somebody fabricated an invoice from you it wouldn't implicate you either; just them.

OK, that's true. Perhaps just being connected to a body being investigated for fraud is embarassment enough.

The Yorkshire Post has published an update - the DfE claims it was an administrative error not to report it as a crime.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/education/blunder-over-school-fraud-probe-1-6209044

TravellingSouth
The Audit Commission has been abolished. It has no audit teams any more. They were all made redundant over a year ago.

The AC and the NAO do NOT Audit the accounts of free schools and academies.
Free schools and academies are Limited Companies under the auspices of the Companies Acts and appoint their own auditors - look at their published accounts if you do not believe me.
Companies are free to hire and fire whichever auditor they choose.
Local Authority auditors do NOT have the right to look at the main accounts of any academy or free school.

I used to work for the Audit Commission and am still heavily involved in public sector audit.

Once those schools get their hands on the funding block, it is up to them how they spend it.

Talkinpeace, Free schools are a type of academy, and so have to follow the rules in this handbook: www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/executiveagencies/efa/efafundingfinance/b00212647/external-assurance/academies-financial-handbook.

Free school trusts sign a funding agreement with the DfE so they can't spend their money as freely as you suggest. They are exempt charities ( www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/Specialist_guidance/Education/introduction_for_school_governors.aspx ) which means they are regulated by the DfE. If the DfE is no longer answerable to the NAO as you suggest then it will be answerable to whatever has replaced it, i.e. the body that is responsible for monitoring all government spending.

Talkinpeace I thought that was the case when I read the first post about the Audit Commission. Now we see why the Tories said such bodies were a waste of money, don't we?

The NAO still exists, and it will audit the DfE's books
but its chain of responsibility stops when the cheques leave the public sector
same as when the MOD writes a cheque to BAE for a plane, the MOD auditors have no right to look at BAEs books.

In the handbook
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254137/Academies_Financial_Handbook_Oct_2013.pdf
Page 30 clearly states that Academies and free schools appoint their own auditors and paragraph 3.1.6 shows that only a summary is used for consolidation into the DfEs accounts

paragraph 3.6.1 allows the NAO to look at the records for VFM purposes, but they are not the auditor of those schools
3.7 alows the EFA to do an audit, but plenty of notice will be given (cue all the embarrassing stuff vanishing in te preceding weeks)

interestingly though, as per 3.9.2 the de minimis for fraud reporting to the EFA is £5,000

Talkinpeace, here is the Free school model funding agreement that governa how Free school trista can spend their money: www.education.gov.uk/a0074737/funding-agreement.

I know for a fact that Free schools can be audited by the Government because I know people who have experienced that first hand. They said it was far more thorough than any LA audit they'd ever been incolved in.

Scuse typos. Bumpy car journey.

The handbook and the funding agreements are very clear on what is permitted.
I'd be interested to know which free schools have already been picked for EFA audit, because as per the handbook that implies there were already concerns.
BUT
I was an AC/DA auditor and I've had close dealings with DA/AC teams for the last 12 years (until the week before they were all sacked) - some of the work is slapdash in the extreme, because of the way they hire staff.

And the real point is that there is no ongoing oversight as there would be in an LEA with attached inspectors and the requirement that every bill paid through the council bank accounts over £500 is listed on the website (ruling from Mr Pickles)

Talkingpeace, it is exactly the same rules and regulations for free schools as it is for academies. I'm not defending the policies, but free schools are the only way to create new schools now and the vast majority of academies and free schools will be honestly and professionally run. I'm pretty sure bad apples will be found, but hopefully without damaging the reputation of the others.

Academy chains aren't inspected by Ofsted either although LAs are. There's a news piece on that in the TES (July - '“We meet with them all the time” - minister insists that academy chains don’t need to be inspected' - 09 July 2013).

He is both sponsor and minister so surely there's conflict of interest? There have been too many 'administrative blunders' at the DfE to trust their oversight.

Straggle, academies and free schools are inspected by Ofsted, in the same way as maintained schools.

LAs are inspected by Ofsted as providers of children's services. Their role is much wider than that of Academy chains. If all they did was run schools then they probably wouldn't be inspected either ... just the schools would be.

Agree, Ofsted most certainly have total access to all state funded schools - it was them that shut the Islamic free school .....

They have little need to go to the head office of an academy chain because it will not have much that comes under their remit
unlike an local authority that has all the statementing and children in care and the like

BUT
When I had a nice phone chat with a man from ofsted about "special measures" he admitted that if the academy trust reject the findings and say all is well, then there is nothing that ofsted can do
an LEA will parachute people in
but an academy (stand alone or chain) or free school may just stick their heads in the sand
at which point the DfE have to step in : so far an untested system

Talkinpeace, any free school or academy worth its salt will do everything it can for its SEN kids, and certainly will be very responsive to Ofsted findings. If they put their head in the sand they'd have some very angry parents to deal with, and the press would come down on them like a ton of bricks too.

On that note, Bradford's Kings Science Academy was pretty vocal in rejecting the findings of Ofsted inspectors over a range of issues. I remember seeing a bullish letter to parents on their website at the time. Can't find it now though.

worth its salt
And there is the nub of it :
These are new and untried and untested management teams

Many of them do their level best to keep SEN kids out (illegal but they do)

Bbut the political mindset says that they are automatically better than LEAs - without a shred of evidence

Most of the press no longer investigate anything.
They just copy and paste press releases they are given

The case I was involved with was covered by lots of local papers and they all included the same spelling mistake that was in the original Police press release .....

Found it now: www.kings.ac/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/School-Improvement-Policy-Statement.pdf

The NAO can be commissioned to report on any area of public spending - such as the forthcoming one on Free Schools this winter. It's not the same as going through the books of individual schools, but it's pretty hot on general VfM questions and whether good governance is in place.

Talkin, what is your evidence for "Many of them do their level best to keep SEN kids out"?

If they do have fewer SEN children then that will be apparent in their stats.

Of course it may be that some free schools get fewer SEN applicants in the first place, if they're new and untested. In many areas SEN applicants have a reasonably wide choice of provision as they're prioritised for admissions.

Travellingsouth
Love that press release. Head in the sand, fingers in the ears, lalala
because they place total reliance on this
www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/index/support-for-schools/national-leaders-of-education/nle-faqs.htm#nle6
a self regulating pat each other on the back political grouping.
Great.

scaevola
BUT any NAO work is only as good as the team hired to do the actual work. The NAO has very few in house auditors. They used to use the AC teams. I am not clear how good their education hires are. Their local government ones are pretty poor.