Emergency cash flow funding for academies increased in 2013/14

Figures provided by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) show that individual academies needed more than £4 million to plug unexpected holes in their cash flows in 2013/14. This was up from £1 million in 2012/13.


The document setting out how to apply for this cash - called 'advances of funding' - says: 'Occasionally, academies will experience short-term negative cash flows. These negative cash flows may become of a cumulative value such that an academy may exhaust its cash holdings. In these circumstances, academies may wish to request an advance of funding.'

The document says that the academies making these requests could face closer scrutiny: 'Requests for advances of funding may lead to a re-assessment of the academy’s financial management and control arrangements. This reassessment could lead to the EFA formally intervening to secure improvements in to these areas.'

However, in response to another FOI request, the EFA said that there were no records of unsuccessful requests for advances of funding. The agency said this was because academies were usually in informal discussions with the EFA before being advised to make an application.

The figures for 2013/14 have been inflated by the £900,000 advance to St Aldhelm's Academy in Poole which was a victim of a £1.2 million fraud (a further £300,000 was provided to St Aldhelm's under the EFAs other informal funding route - deficit funding).

The FOI request asked for the EFA to provide the reasons why the academies on the list required advance funding. The EFA said that providing this information would have gone beyond the statutory resources it could apply to a single FOI request.

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Advances of Funding:

Year	No. academies	Value
2011/12	16	£2,112,852
2012/13	17	£1,160,638
2013/14	16	£4,271,478
For 2013/14 in detail:
Academy Name	Amount
Barnby Road Academy	£75,000
The Business Academy Bexley	£702,000
Biggleswade Academy	£200,000
City Academy Bristol	£275,000
Goldsworth Primary School	£65,000
Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy	£600,000
King Edward VI Academy	£42,177
Langdon Academy	£350,000
Merchants' Academy	£80,667
Ormiston Endeavour Academy	£320,000
St Aldhelm's Academy	£925,000
St Matthew Academy	£100,000
The Archer Academy	£16,634
The Elstree UTC	£220,000
The Robert Smyth Academy	£150,000
The Royston Schools	£150,000
Total	£4,271,478