Exclusive: Council in £628,000 school deal signed no contract

A COUNCIL paid more than half a million pounds to a controversial superhead’s school without having any contract in place, the Yorkshire Post can reveal.

Stockton Council paid £628,000 to Michael Wilkins’ Outwood Grange School in Wakefield to provide expert support for St Patrick’s School after it slipped into special measures last year – but at no point had a contract to underpin the spending.

An internal audit report drawn up by the Teesside authority also found that a contract resulting in £723,000 going to Outwood Grange to improve the fortunes of another failing school – Thornaby Community – was signed off without its legal department carrying out the required scrutiny.

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Stockton’s arrangements with Outwood Grange were very similar to those Mr Wilkins’ school agreed with Doncaster Council, which also spent over half a million pounds to improve one of its schools. A recent Doncaster audit severely criticised failures in procurement with the findings prompting a threat of disciplinary action against officers in the event of any similar failures in future.

But Stockton Council said it was happy with the findings of its auditors which were markedly less critical than their counterparts in South Yorkshire.

A spokesman said: “We are pleased the auditor found we followed the engagement procedures for Outwood Grange fully and that our system of internal controls is sound.”

Stockton brought in Mr Wilkins’ school to provide specialist support to Thornaby between March 2009 and August 2010 and St Patrick’s between March 2010 and August this year. Mr Wilkins was appointed through his role as a National Leader in Education (NLE), a Government-backed initiative to use leading headteachers to turn around struggling schools.

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Outwood Grange has received in the region of £3.2m for expert support provided to secondary schools in the region, about £1m of which was profit. Concerns have been raised about the rewards paid to Mr Wilkins who has personally been paid more than £750,000 over the past four years.

Stockton’s auditors said there was “substantial assurance” over the deals for its two schools but also found “inadequate controls” resulting in a potential “financial loss or reputational damage to the authority”.

There was “no evidence of a contract” being in place for St Patrick’s but auditors said that a due diligence report and cost schedule drawn up by Outwood Grange “could be produced as evidence of the contractual arrangements which had been put in place”.

However, the audit also revealed that the council’s decision record for the spending at St Patrick’s had still not been completed – even though Outwood Grange had been working at the school since February 2010. The report described this as “a significant time delay” and added: “The council has entered into procurement arrangements without the proper internal controls in place.”

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The report found the contract for Thornaby was signed by a council assistant director without the approval of legal services which was required for any contract over £75,000 in value. But auditors said that in the view of legal services the appointment of Outwood Grange did comply with procurement procedures.

The decision record for Thornaby was only completed after the contract with Outwood had already been signed, with the audit also finding the details on the form “could have been clearer”.

A Stockton Council spokesman said: “While we accept that we do not hold a record of the decision relating to current spending at St Patrick’s, we are nevertheless satisfied that the decision itself was properly made.”

He added that swift intervention at the schools had been necessary and resulted in significant improvements.