A multi-academy trust which has been acquiring some of Plymouth’s largest schools more than doubled its "profit" to £3m last year.
The company accounts for Greenshaw Learning Trust show it made a surplus of £3.119m in the year to the end of August 2021 - up from £1.382m in 2020.
The Surrey-headquartered trust contains 21 schools, with clusters in South London, Surrey, Bracknell Forest, Gloucester and Forest of Dean.
But in 2021 it added Plymouth, taking on Stoke Damerel Community College, Scott Medical and Healthcare College, and Montpelier Primary School in January. It is planning to add Sir John Hunt Community Sports College in early 2022 too after a wrangle over the campus delayed its transfer.
The school, in Whitleigh, was , after this was granted approval by the Regional Schools Commissioner. But although many of the key steps required for the school to convert to an academy and transfer were completed the process hit a snag.
The school is on a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) shared campus and the trust said this “increases the complexity and number of legal processes to be completed”.
The Greenshaw Learning Trust said it has been working closely with the school, and the staff and students are “already being treated as part of the GLT family ahead of the transfer”.
The newly published Consolidated Report and Financial Statements said: “Sir John Hunt is expected to join in early 2022.”
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The report also revealed that the trust’s income jumped to £108,762,000 in 2021, from £74,938,000 a year earlier. Nearly all income comes from the Government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) as a grant.
At the end of August the trust held total funds of £138,809,000, but had a pension deficit of £66,409,000. Trustees set a new reserves target for each of its schools of at least 5% of total income for 2021/22.
The trust employs 2,022 staff, of which 829 are teachers and 76 are in management. It has a wage bill, including pension contributions and other costs, of £72,908,000, with chief executive William Smith being paid between £160,000 and £165,000 a year, with an employer’s pension contribution of between £35,000 and £40,000.
The trust provides shared services to its schools for such things as training, pupil assessment, budget planning, HR and inhouse catering, which the schools must pay for from its annual grant income. This is capped at 5% of the grant or £300,000 but there are additional charges for some services.
Montpelier Primary paid £97,000 for shared services, Scott Medical paid £84,000 and Stoke Damerel CC paid £252,000. Overall the shared services bill for the 21 schools came to £4,134,000.
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Academy trusts run academies, schools which receive funding directly from the Government. Although academies have to follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as other state schools and students sit the same exams, they have more control over how they operate and do not have to follow the national curriculum and can set their own term times.
Some schools choose to become academies. If a school funded by the local authority is judged as “inadequate” by Ofsted it must become an academy. Academy trusts are not-for-profit companies, hence they report a "surplus" rather than a "profit". They employ the staff and have trustees who are responsible for the performance of the academies in the trust.