Review

How School Bosses Spend Your Millions: Dispatches was good, old-fashioned, challenging investigative journalism

Gerard O'Donovan 26 July 2016 • 7:34am

Antony Barnett investigates the finances of the academy school system Credit: Channel 4

One of David Cameron’s more striking legacies is that his six-year premiership saw the number of secondary schools enjoying academy status expand from 600 to 5,000-plus, and rising.

In Dispatches: How School Bosses Spend Your Millions (Channel 4), reporter Antony Barnett proved his class by casting a sharp eye over this “brave new world of academies”.

The key fact here being that academy status allows schools, or the trusts controlling them, autonomy over their share of the £14billion of public money that funds them.

Barnett’s focus was on some of the business “opportunities” that occur when public money is ploughed into private enterprise. His findings were a cause for concern.

The initial focus was on “related party transactions” where contracts worth over £9million of public money (and permissible only on a non-profit basis) were handed out to trust directors or their relatives.

Then there was the case of the Aspirations Academies Trust that pays around £90,000 a year in consultancy fees to its US-based co-founder, claiming this represents “value for money”.

More worrying was an assertion that special needs pupils are discriminated against in the drive for improved standards.

Again, Barnett produced compelling evidence that this has occurred.

Most impressive, though, were the findings of a freedom of information request on the subject of trustees’ expenses.

“It’s the first time this information has ever been revealed,” said Barnett triumphantly.

And who could blame him, as the rock he lifted revealed thousands of pounds of public money spent on hotels, taxis, golf and restaurants (even a £40 a month bill for broadband in France).

Ian Cleland, CEO of the Academy Transformation Trust in the West Midlands, was reported to have supplemented a £180,000 salary with £20,000 in expenses since 2014.

This was good, old-fashioned, challenging investigative journalism, as well as a startling reminder of the challenges which new Secretary of State for Education Justine Greening faces regarding fiscal accountability.

Gold stars all round, I’d say.