Perry Beeches “superhead” Liam Nolan has come out fighting after a damning financial inquiry raised a host of questions.
Perry Beeches The Academy Trust has been ordered to improve the way it manages its finances – or face the potential loss of its funding – after it emerged Mr Nolan was being paid a second salary, bumping his pay up to about £200,000, to perform chief executive duties.
The Education Funding Agency inquiry revealed almost £1.3 million of Perry Beeches’ funds went to a company called Nexus Schools – which then paid Mr Nolan £160,000 over two years in addition to his £120,000-a-year salary.
Mr Nolan said Nexus was appointed by Birmingham City Council and said the money also went towards tables, chairs, equipment and school supplies.
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Elsewhere, Mr Nolan said he had “absolutely no idea” why Nexus Schools make donations of £5,000 each to the Labour campaigns for Jack Dromey in Erdington and Gisela Stuart in Edgbaston.
The inquiry also said there was a significant risk that safeguarding – child protection – had not met legal requirement at Perry Beeches – but Mr Nolan told the Mail there was no cause for parents to be concerned.
He said: “There have never been any safeguarding issues at any Perry Beeches school. Even the Ofsted inspection putting Perry Beeches III into special measures did not find fault with safeguarding. The safeguarding issue this report refers to is the employment of a health and safety advisor.”
The trust, which has been praised by Prime Minister David Cameron, runs Perry Beeches The Academy and four other secondaries, named Perry Beeches II, III, IV and V.
It is now being monitored by the EFA and Education Secretary Nicky Morgan in the wake of the inquiry.
The report reveals there was no tender process before Nexus was handed the school’s payroll, admin, health and safety services – and it then operated without a contract.
Mr Nolan said: “Nexus Schools has required service providers to tender through the usual process on behalf of the school, before contracts were awarded. Nexus sub contracts that work.
“Nexus were the provider of choice by the local authority when we were a local authority school. When we converted to an academy we continued to use their services for procurement. There is now a contract in place.”
The inquiry also revealed Mr Nolan to made a presentation to the Trust’s finance committee on behalf of Nexus in February 2014.
When asked about that by the Mail, he said: “Yes, I can see how that could look like a conflict of interest, although there is none. This is one of the things that we have learned from the EFA report, so this issue has been addressed.”
