Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the maximum amount of time is that a salary has been paid to a staff member of a free school before that school opened.

Once an application to establish a free school, university technical college or studio school has received initial approval to proceed to the pre-opening stage, the Department for Education provides a grant to the proposer group to help cover essential non-capital costs, including appropriate salary costs, up to the point at which the school opens. The rates at which these grants are paid are published in the department’s guidance for free school proposer groups (at paragraph 6.11 on page 38), which is published online at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-pre-opening-guide

Information about how many staff were paid a salary before a particular school opened, how much was paid to staff in total, which groups made such payments and how long salaries were paid before opening is not collected centrally. However, all academy trusts, including free school trusts, are required to comply with company and charity law regarding the preparation of financial statements. Where the trust has a signed funding agreement with the Department for Education, the financial statement must comply with the Academies Accounts Direction. This direction sets out the requirements relating to financial statements, including details of expected staffing disclosures.