Council to control school's payments after 'serious weaknesses' identified (From Bucks Free Press)

Council to control Beaconsfield High School's payments after 'serious weaknesses' identified

12:40pm Thursday 17th June 2010 in Education By Lawrence Dunhill

ONE of the top schools in Buckinghamshire is set to sell off land after it entered into an ambitious building contract without the funds in place to pay for it, according to council documents.

An auditor has identified a number of areas of “serious weakness” in the financial management at Beaconsfield High School - requiring the intervention of Buckinghamshire County Council.

Building work on a new 'Learning Centre' at the girls' grammar began in October last year, after the school signed a £2 million contract with construction company Leadbitter.

A report by Ian Dyson, the county council's Chief Internal Auditor, shows the school signed the contract without having sufficient funding in place (click link below for full report).

It also states the school had not established who owned the land being built on, and permission was not sought from the local authority which part-owns the land.

Last year the Wattleton Road school issued a leaflet asking parents to “establish a culture of giving” and donate money for the building project.

The school told the Bucks Free Press about £1 million has been raised for the project so far, while another £700,000 has been 'pledged' by donors.

The project has put the school's budget and the council “at risk”, said the auditor, because the contract will need to be paid for “despite no funding being currently available”.

The council is set to allow the school to have debts of about £1.3 million while it tries to balance the books over the next five years.

In a further document commenting on the auditor's report, Chris Williams, the chief executive of BCC, said the school has given up its 'chequebook' financial management status and agreed to move its salary payments back to the county council (click link below to read the document).

His comments also refer to The Taylor Centre - a building to the side of the main school which is to be sold to fund the deficit.

Beaconsfield High said yesterday the building is “not fit for purpose” and its sale has been an “on-going project”. But according to a school newsletter half the land had been intended to be retained and developed for educational use.

The school's acting headteacher, Owain Johns, wrote in March: “Despite a vigorous and well-planned fundraising campaign [for the new Learning Centre], the amount that the school has been able to raise in the current climate has been less than forecast.

“The school is pleased to have obtained support from our Local Authority who have offered to support the project in the short term while fundraising continues.

“These recent developments mean that plans for the old Taylor Centre are now being reviewed. It was the school’s original intention to retain and develop half of the remaining site for educational use.”

The land is set to be sold to housing developers, though Pete Rowe, the school's new consultant headteacher, said any development would include a 'community arts space'.

Mr Rowe, who is also the head at Princes Risborough School, said: “There is no suggestion that we will not be able to pay for the build out of school finances and ideally well before the agreed five-year plan with the local authority.”

He added the sale of The Taylor Centre should raise “well in excess” of the £1.3m licensed deficit figure.

He said many of the weaknesses within the schools finances were down to its former accounting system, which produced incomplete and out-of-date information according to the auditor.

He said of the new Learning Centre, which will house extra classrooms and a new dining area: “This is going to be an absolutely fantastic new resource for the children of Beaconsfield.”

Steven Adams, the new schools boss at BCC, said: “This is certainly something that officers are going to keep me in touch about, but I'm confident the school will be on a sound financial footing within five years.”