Struggling academies drain Government resources

Academies across the country that are struggling financially are increasingly turning to the Government for cash handouts according to financial agency Syscap.

Over the last year academies have claimed over £9 million in emergency funding, this is a shocking 52% increase on the £5.9 million the previous year so the financiers released.

Syscap is one of the primary finance providers in the educational sector , they keep track of spending throughout the educational system. With the rise of the academy they have become a financial watchdog, looking into how academies have effeted the total costs incurred by the DfE (Department for Education) and raise warnings for the future.

The numbers not only showed the increase in the amount of cash the academies have needed but also that in the last year three more academy schools have joined the list of those who can no longer support themselves making a total of nine, that works out over a £1 million per year per school.

This figure is only set to get higher as Syscap revealed that due to an administrative error academies were actually overpaid in previous years, whilst there are no plans for a repayment  they instead  are next year cutting the per pupil grants.

Syscap chief executive Phillip White commented on the situation saying,

“If some academies are already struggling financially, the prospects for next year do not look good as academies have to readjust to lower per pupil grants.”

This news comes less than a month after the DfE were heavily criticized for overspending on academies by over £1 billion during the last two years.  Margaret Hodge, chair woman of the investigating committee sent a clear message to the DfE,

“Some of this money had previously been earmarked to support schools struggling with difficult challenges and circumstances…the department’s decision to solely use this money to create academies – many of which were already high performing – may have been at the expense of weaker, non-academy schools which could potentially have benefited from it more”

Advocates of the academy system hit back saying the report ‘ignores the successes of the programme and fails to take under spent budgets into account’.

A further report has been called for with which individual school spenditure can be looked at at a ground level

PAC: “Show us your expenses, academies”

By Sarah Dyer

Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge has demanded the Department of education releases its expenditure data. This follows the announcement that over £1 billion extra funding has been pulled from other budgets to convert UK schools into academies.

According to the article in the Belfast Telegraph ‘PAC chairwoman Margaret Hodge said: “The funding system for academies has not operated effectively alongside the local authority system and has made it hard for the department to prove that academies are not receiving more money than they should.

“The department must publish detailed data showing school-level expenditure, including costs per pupil, so that proper comparisons can be made with the data for maintained schools.”‘

Between April 2010 and March 2012, the Department of Education spent £8.3 billion on converting schools into academies including the extra £1 billion from other budgets.

Follow the investigation on Twitter: @AcademiesJourno