Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2016 to Question 48942, how many financial notices to improve have been issued to academy trusts in each year since 2010; how many such cases resulted in schools being removed from the academy trust; and what average period of time is taken from identification of a problem for a financial notice to improve to be issued.

The Education Funding Agency introduced Financial Notices to Improve (FNtIs) in 2012. As of 3 November 2016, the following number of FNtIs have been issued:

Subsequent to an FNtI being issued, 25 schools in 7 trusts have been rebrokered to other academy trusts. However, the re-brokerage of a school can happen for a range of educational, financial and governance reasons and therefore cannot be attributed solely to an FNtI having being issued.

The EFA has a clear and robust strategy for intervention that ensures appropriate and proportionate action is taken swiftly in cases of concern. Formal intervention, including the issuing of FNtIs, is undertaken when it is clear that there has been a breach of the terms under which trusts operate, whether that be the Funding Agreement or the Academies Financial Handbook. When a ‘problem’ is established following the review and assessment of evidence - in a whistleblowing case, for example, we establish first whether there was any substance to an allegation before moving to intervention. Because of this, it is not possible to generate a single average as requested in the final part of the question.