school<\/a> chain also admitted to failing to carry out internal financial checks last year. Its reserves fell by more than 40 per cent over the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJonathan Wilden, TST\u2019s CEO, said his academies were \u201cfinding rising costs a challenge while wanting to do as much to support children\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added: \u201cThey have no choice but to utilise reserves while conducting an accurate analysis of curriculum and staffing models with headteachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accounts show a settlement agreement \u2013 entered into before Wilden\u2019s arrival \u2013 contained a \u201cprovision for pay in lieu of notice together with pension contributions\u201d for their notice period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is not clear who the member of staff was but, as their employment was \u201cterminated\u201d a third of the way through their notice period, it was \u201cagreed the pension contributions would be paid as a lump sum\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trust received legal advice confirming that, if it did not do so, \u201cit risked litigation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No internal checks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Despite this, the payment was found to have breached academy rules as TST did not receive the Department for Education’s “prior authorisation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The academy trust has been open and transparent with the DfE about this payment, and the DfE have acknowledged that \u2026 [TST] acted in good faith and in accordance with the legal advice obtained,” the accounts added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
TST also revealed \u201cno financial internal scrutiny checks were performed during 2024-25\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This meant \u201ckey financial procedures and controls have not been independently reviewed\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilden acknowledged this was also a breach of the rules but stressed the issue \u201chas been rectified\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the end of August, TST registered a surplus of \u00a3297,000, down from \u00a3530,000 in 2023-24. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MAT also did not conduct internal audit as reserves tumbled due to ‘rising costs’, accounts show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":177062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,28,239,449],"post-theme":[2381],"class_list":["post-241097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","tag-dfe","tag-education-policy","tag-school-funding","post-theme-academies"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t