Recommendation 16

When we examined academy schools’ finances in March 2018, we were concerned that some academy trusts appeared to be using public money to pay excessive salaries. We recommended that the Department should challenge all academy trusts that were paying 32 Q 92 33 Q 64; Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of schools in England, Forty-Second Report of Session 2021–22, HC 650, 4 March 2022 34 Academy schools sector in England: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020, page 7 35 DfE guidance, Coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund to support schools with costs of staff absences from 22 November 2021 to 18 February 2022, January 2022 36 DfE guidance, School funding: exceptional costs associated with coronavirus (COVID-19) for the period from March to July 2020, December 2020 37 Q 59; Academy schools sector in England: Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2020, page 18 38 Q 61; AAR0001 – Academies Sector Annual report and Accounts 2019–20, Catholic Education Service, 24 January 2022 14 Academies Sector Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20 excessive salaries and take action where these could not be justified.39 In its response, the Department agreed with our recommendation and explained that the ESFA continued to challenge where high salaries were awarded to ensure a robust evidence based approach had been followed.40