The finances of the academies and all schools need to be urgently reviewed if they are to level up to succeed: The Yorkshire Post says Yorkshire News

Of the 12 mission statements, only one is directly related to schools and that is the ambition to ensure that 90% of students complete primary school by 2030 with the necessary skills in reading, writing and mathematics, and “the percentage of children who meet the expected standard. in the worst performing areas it will have increased by more than a third.”

What is not clear is how ministers define “worst performing areas” and how they intend to track progress to ensure sufficient resources and political attention are devoted to those communities whose future has been compromised by poor performance.

Today’s multi-party report from the Public Accounts Committee, Parliament’s spending watchdog, is a starting point. It outlines a number of concerns about the state of school finances, the level of reserves accumulated by academies outside of LEA jurisdiction, and inadequate support for students with special learning needs.

However, given the dilapidated state of local government budgets and the huge disparities in the financial strategies pursued by the academies, now is the time to conduct an audit of the budgets of all schools to determine the current state and, more importantly, where resources should be directed in the future. to fulfill, at least, the main mission of leveling up.

Because, if the current ad hoc approach is allowed to continue on top of the Treasury refusing to support the £15bn scheme set out by government adviser Sir Kevan Collins to help students catch up on lessons lost during the pandemic, then the term ‘leveling up’, already ridiculed by many, becomes even more nebulous.

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