All posts tagged: esfa

ESFA chief David Withey to become college principal

ESFA chief David Withey to become college principal

Published by skeptic

He will lead a college in the south west when the agency closes in March He will lead a college in the south west when the agency closes in March More from this theme Recent articles Education and Skills Funding Agency boss David Withey is set to become the chief executive and principal of a college. The senior civil servant will take on the top role at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) in March 2025 when the agency closes and staff integrate with the Department for Education. He will replace Kevin Hamblin who has served as SGS CEO since 2001. The group also sponsors the SGS Academy Trust, which has three schools. Withey became the ESFA’s chief in August 2022, joining from the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia where he was chief operating officer and deputy ​secretary. Before that he worked on public spending in Treasury departments in the UK and Australia and led the New South Wales COVID economic taskforce. The government announced in September that the ESFA would shut as …

Conflict questions as Labour moves to single regulator

Conflict questions as Labour moves to single regulator

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Ministers face questions about how they will maintain independent financial oversight of academies after announcing they will close the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and beef up the role of powerful regional directors. The government announced this week that the ESFA will be “integrated into the core Department for Education” by March next year. The two-stage move will give schools a “single point of contact for financial management and support”, the government said. But the announcement has prompted concerns that regional directors could be overly influenced by ministers. For instance, regional directors were tasked with growing the academy agenda, while the ESFA was tasked with independently investigating cases of financial mismanagement in schools. Scrapping ESFA ‘bad news for transparency’ One former ESFA official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said it was “bad news for transparency and fairness in education”.  “The ESFA was a key, rational bulwark against the cronyism of regional directors. This government stripping away of the checks and balances of executive agencies does nothing for pupils.” …

ESFA to close as regions group take over school finance oversight

ESFA to close as regions group take over school finance oversight

Published by skeptic

The government’s education funding agency will be closed down, with its financial oversight for schools rolled into the regions groups. The Education and Skills Funding Agency will be “integrated into the core Department for Education” by March next year, government said today. The move will happen over two stages and give schools a “single point of contact for financial management and support”, government said. The ESFA is currently an executive agency of the Department. Schools financial support and oversight functions will transfer from October 1 and be brought together with the regions group, nine areas overseen by regional directors. This will support the launch of regional improvement teams by January, government added, allowing a “single regulator model with governance and accountability sitting in one place”. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson added: “This will provide a single seamless voice to schools and ensure that financial improvement is central to school improvement.” Funding and assurance functions will be centralised on March 31 next year, when the ESFA will close. It will enable a single, joined-up approach to funding …

ESFA annual report and accounts: 8 things we learned

ESFA annual report and accounts: 8 things we learned

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has written off £4.5 million owed by academy trusts to re-broker their schools, cut staffing levels again and forked out hundreds of thousands for consultants. It also coughed up £107,000 for an employee’s payout and continues to wait for more than 60 per cent of local authorities to submit financial statements, the agency’s latest accounts have revealed. Here’s what you need to know… 1. £4.5m rebrokerage debt written-off The ESFA said it had waived or abandoned over £4.5 million in debt owed by academy trusts which had schools rebrokered into other chains. This included £2.47 million owed by the SchoolsCompany trust, which collapsed in 2018 amid accusations of financial mismanagement. The government is funding the trust to pursue former trustees in court for £2.8 million of lost public funds. SchoolsCompany is one of four trusts named in the accounts with debts of over £300,000 written off. The others are Harefield Academy Trust (£915,000), Chapel Street Community Schools Trust (£804,000) and UTC Leeds (£327,000). …