Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what early intervention measures are in place to identify (a) financial mismanagement and (b) declining performance in academy schools.

Ofsted routinely inspects academies and must notify my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education when an academy is causing concern. Where an academy is causing concern, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has powers to intervene which can result in it being transferred to a different academy trust where necessary.

In addition, the department monitors the financial performance of academy trusts and if it identifies concerns, will intervene in a way that is proportionate to the risk and preserves education provision. This can include issuing a trust with a Notice to Improve setting out the remedial action it must take and, in the most serious cases, terminating funding agreements so that the trust’s academies can be transferred to alternative trusts.

The government is committed to bring multi-academy trusts into scope for inspection which will enhance the department’s ability to act where a trust which is responsible for a number of academies is not managing them effectively.