Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of schools in Coventry which are in financial deficit.

The Department trusts schools to manage their own budgets and the vast majority are operating with a cumulative surplus, with only a small percentage having a cumulative deficit. The latest figures for Coventry’s local authority maintained schools showed 78 schools (95%) reporting a cumulative surplus or breaking even, against four schools reporting a cumulative deficit in 2016-17.

Academy trusts are the legal entities responsible for academies, including their finances, with freedoms to pool funding among their academies. A trust based in Coventry may contain academies outside Coventry, and an academy in Coventry may belong to a trust outside Coventry. For example, the majority of academies in the Diocese of Coventry Multi-Academy Trust are in Warwickshire. One trust based in Coventry reported an overall deficit in 2016/17.