Wakefield City Academies Trust

(asked on 24th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department took to ensure that there were no improper financial transfers from within the Wakefield City Academies Trust before that Trust collapsed; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 30th October 2017

Academy trusts operate under a strict system of oversight and accountability. Academy trusts must adhere to their funding agreement and to the Academies Financial Handbook. They are also subject to company and charities law. All academy trusts provide the Department with annual accounts; these accounts are subject to a system of independent audit. They are published by Trusts. As part of this process, external auditors set out whether any irregular spending has come to their attention. Following the Trust’s decision to wind-down, we have secured additional specialist capacity to provide further assurance on the Trust’s financial position.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) periodically visits multi academy trusts to assess their financial management and governance arrangements. We do not publish these routine assurance reports.

The ESFA undertook such a review of Wakefield City Academies Trust between June and September 2015 and made a follow-up visit in July 2016. At this time, we do not intend to publish the ESFA report into Wakefield City Academies Trust, as this could be obstructive to the process of ensuring all the schools are placed with new trusts.

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