Whitehaven Academy trust could be told to repay cash

16 August 2018

A trust which ran a troubled school could be told to return thousands of pounds for a lighting upgrade the government has no proof was completed.

The Department for Education (DfE) is seeking to recover "up to £321,775" from the Bright Tribe Trust, which runs Whitehaven Academy in Cumbria.

It said last year it would pull out, amid standards and safety concerns.

It said it was looking for evidence it could pass on to show the work had been done as intended.

Bright Tribe Trust was given money for LED lighting by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which is answerable to the DfE, in 2015.

"An external contractor was appointed to complete this activity," a trust spokesman said.

"We are working with the ESFA ... to evidence that the work has been completed in line with the specification."

In response to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC, the DfE said it had "not received appropriate evidence that this work is complete".

"If evidence of appropriate spend is forthcoming we would deduct this from the amount we are seeking to recover," it said.

£90,000 for upkeep

Whitehaven Academy was put into special measures in 2016.

Trudy Harrison, the Conservative MP for Copeland, said: "It was clear that there had not been the investment in the school that one would expect".

She said parents had told her they believed the school had been invoiced for work that "had been carried out poorly or not even carried out at all.

"I could see for myself that those lights had not been fitted," Ms Harrison said.

Since 2014 the academy has been allocated more than £90,000 for its upkeep, but is said to be in a poor state of repair.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee is looking into whether the money was spent on its intended purpose, external.