Exclusive: £1m superhead school paid out thousands for teachers’ treats

An audit of the finances of Outwood Grange, in Wakefield, has revealed a school operating with lax financial controls despite its head, Michael Wilkins, being championed by Education Secretary Michael Gove as a “great school leader”.

The audit report, obtained following a freedom of information request, states: “The main conclusion is that there has been a significant breakdown in appropriate standards of governance and accountability at the school.”

Outwood Grange was found to have kept thousands of pounds raised for charity and at one point paid more than £6,000 of the donations into its own account.

Mr Wilkins, whose services had cost the taxpayer £1m over four years for providing specialist support at several schools as a superhead, was said to have received consultancy fees which “were not properly authorised (by governors) and should not have been paid in the way they were”.

It was found the only approval for tens of thousands of pounds in payments – which went directly into Mr Wilkins’s private company – was drawn up by the chairman of governors, Jim Walkden, with Mr Wilkins himself.

The audit, carried out by Wakefield Council, has suggested Outwood should now consider the position of Mr Walkden.

It has also questioned how significant sums of public money were spent on rewards for staff – including a trip on the Orient Express for a teacher and her partner and drinks bills running into hundreds of pounds a time.

Council auditors began their investigations in 2009 after receiving a tip-off that charity money was being retained by Outwood Grange.

The Wakefield authority’s chief executive Joanne Roney said: “As a result of our audit we have uncovered a practice and culture of excessive rewards with, in our opinion, weak public accountability. This report raises many serious issues about the use of public money, the scale and range of the payments made, and the extent to which some individuals gained.

“For this reason we will be referring all relevant information to the Audit Commission, HM Revenue and Customs, Charities Commission, and other appropriate bodies for their consideration.

“We have done all that we can to recover money that we believe is owed to the school by Mr Wilkins, money that could be of great use to the school in these challenging times. As Outwood Grange is an academy, it is now their responsibility to take these matters further and, based on the contents of this report, I would strongly urge them to act on our recommendations.”

But Outwood last night hit back at the criticisms and accused the council of adopting an “aggressive and hostile approach to the establishment of the Academy” from its formation in 2009, when it left local authority control.

Outwood defended the spending on alcohol and trips as ways to “improve staff morale and have helped to create a successful can-do culture”. The school also said the council was aware, in general terms, that it, “along with other schools and council bodies, employ team and motivational reward events as a matter of course”.

The school said its trustees “reaffirmed their full confidence” in Mr Walkden as chair of governors and contested the audit finding by stating it believed proper governor approval had been given for payments to Mr Wilkins’s private company. Outwood has refused to require Mr Wilkins to make repayments.

On a wider level, Outwood defended Mr Wilkins’s intervention in several failing schools which it described as “an innovative response to the longstanding failure of local authorities and other agencies to address underperformance in schools”. It said this had resulted in radical improvements and provided Outwood with an extra £1m in income which had helped improve its own facilities.

The audit findings may have a significant impact on how superheads are paid at other schools as part of the National Leader in Education programme. The National College for School Leadership, which oversees the programme, is to receive a briefing from Wakefield.

Mr Gove feted Mr Wilkins’s performance in a speech last year. He has declined to comment on the Outwood Grange revelations.