Collapsing academy trust asset-stripped its schools of millions

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Encouraging multi-academy trusts destroys the concept that academies were promoted with

Academies were put forward as a way to give greater control to headteachers and governors - and, by implication, parents - of individual schools, who were supposed to be more responsive to the local needs. But an academy of 21 schools is just another bureaucracy, but one without the accountability that local authority control gave. So we end up with, from the OP link:

The draft raised concerns that the chief executive, Mike Ramsay, had been paid more than £82,000 for 15 weeks’ work, despite the fact that the trust was facing a large budget deficit. The DfE has so far refused freedom of information requests to see the final report.

The previous month, it had emerged that the trust had paid almost £440,000 to IT and clerking companies owned by Ramsay and his daughter. In a statement at the time, the trust said internal vetting procedures had found that the contracts represented the best value.

It seems outrageous that money raised by school volunteers ends up in a central pot that seems to have little outside control. "Internal vetting procedures" aren't good enough when a chief executive gives himself and his family contracts and a huge salary.