Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the September 2018 Panorama programme on Bright Tribe Trust and Adventure Learning Academies Trust; and if he will make a statement.
The department has taken significant steps to further strengthen academies’ accountability. This is reflected in the year on year updates to the Academies Financial Handbook which strengthen accountability and transparency in the sector. The department introduced new rules in April 2019 for the declaration or approval of related party transactions. Our requirements are the most robust processes for related party transactions in any sector in the country.
The level of transparency for academies is higher than for local authority schools. The vast majority of trusts operate with a cumulative surplus and at the same time, over half a million pupils now study in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ sponsored academies that typically replaced underperforming local authority maintained schools.