Trustees who run Derby’s controversial failing Muslim free school are believed to have been told to step down and let a sponsor take over – or face it being closed.
It is understood they are being given a chance to save Al-Madinah School by resigning as trustees, though if they decide not to move aside the Government will cut the school’s funding and effectively force it to shut.
But the bureaucracy involved will mean it will take up to a year to close, leaving children in a school that has already been condemned by Ofsted as “dysfunctional”, “in chaos” and “inadequate”.
Likely sponsors for the school could include Greenwood Dale Trust Foundation, which already has control over former Sinfin Community School, now renamed the City of Derby Academy, since earlier this year in May.
The foundation, which is based in Nottingham, runs more than 20 academies in the East Midlands, headed up by chief executive Barry Day.
It is no stranger to taking on challenging projects and recently Mr Day came in for praise from Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove in the House of Commons, when he was criticising Derby City Council’s education record.
Mr Gove said: “It is also important to recognise that the local authority in Derby has a poor record of helping to challenge under-performing schools, and that outside providers such as Barry Day, of Greenwood Dale, have done far more to improve education in Derby than the local authority has ever done.”
But if this foundation trust, or any other, does take over it is unlikely to be before next February or March because of the paperwork involved.
Before then, Ofsted inspectors could return to the school to look for signs of progress and if there is none then they could order the school to be closed anyway.
It is unclear whether any education experts have been drafted into the school to give help and advice since it received its damning inspection report in early October and whether any improvements have already taken place.
Officials from the Department for Education met trustees of the school, which has sites in Nelson Street and Friar Gate, yesterday, although they were anxious to play down the significance of any meetings that have been taking place.
A DfE spokesman said: “Since Lord Nash told the school it needed to improve and gave it until November 1 to come up with an action plan to achieve this, there have been various meetings.
“We are still considering the situation and taking into account various evidence in order to make a decision as to what to do next.”
But speculation that a decision would be made sooner rather than later gathered momentum after the outcome of one of two investigations into the financial situation at the school became public this week, although it has not been officially published by the DfE.
The report, compiled by the Education Funding Agency, was sent to the chair of the trustees, Shazia Parveen, on October 8, at the same time Schools Minister Lord Nash told the school it needed an action plan to improve.
The financial investigation was ordered after a number of people contacted the DfE to express concerns about possible irregularities.
The uncertainty has left the 412 pupils, aged four to 16, and their parents wondering what will happen next.
Derby City Council has said it has not been involved in any plans to resolve the crisis at the school and it has not been asked to find alternative schools for the pupils.
If the school was to close, finding places for pupils could prove difficult, as many schools in the city are already oversubscribed.
In the meantime, the Government’s free schools policy has come under fire from the Labour party, including Derby North MP Chris Williamson. He said: “This demonstrates more clearly than ever that the free school programme is entirely out of control and needs to be withdrawn. This simply would not have happened had the local authority been involved from the outset.
“Free schools are Michael Gove’s pet project but, by single-mindedly pursuing this ideologically-driven programme at all costs, he has put the education of our children at risk.”
Free schools are answerable directly to the Government and the Office for Standards in Education and have no local accountability. They are usually set up by groups, organisations or parents.
In the past few days, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, Kevin Brennan, remarked: “Labour has been warning about the risks that come with the complete lack of oversight of Cameron’s free schools. Now we are seeing the consequences.”
Despite repeated attempts to contact the trustees at Al-Madinah School, and also Mr Day, no one was available for comment.
Government has lots of material to consider in making decision
The Government has plenty of material to consider as it decides what to do about Derby’s Al-Madinah School.
As well as the critical report by Ofsted, it will also have the internal audit of the school, which opened in September 2012, carried out by the Education Funding Agency.
This revealed that the founding trustees, including Shabhan Rehmat, Ziad Amjad and Shazia Parveen, had declared business interests between January and March this year and that a number of governors were “closely involved with suppliers to the school either directly or through family connections”. leading to a “potential conflict of interests”.
Former governor Javid Akhtar, a director of Prestige HR Solutions, in Derby, is also named in the report as having a “potential conflict” when his company was awarded the HR contract for the school.
The report states that two other “original directors of the trust” are now employed by the school. One is named as Fasal Hussein, who was elected as a staff governor in February 2013.
The auditors also concluded that the school “cannot currently demonstrate that it is maintaining proper accounting records”.
They reviewed all invoices from April 2012 to August 2012 and discovered “possible irregular expenditure”.
This included £11,033.25 used in relation to new free school bids in Bradford, Birmingham and Nottingham.
The report also states that the school has entered into a number of contracts with All-Solution Management Solution, which trustee and director of facilities at the school Mr Rehmat and Mr Amjad have declared they have relatives who own or work in the company.
The auditors conclude that the school needs to update its accounting system, ensure appropriate systems and procedures are in place to manage conflicts of interest, consider the make-up of the governing body and appoint new governors and obtain procurement expertise.
Shazia Parveen, as chair of the Al-Madinah Trust, was informed by the Schools Minister on October 8 that there had been " a significant breach of many of the requirements of the Academies Financial Handbook”.
She was told the trust had until October 22 to provide a clear set of specific actions to show how it would deal with the breaches.
None of the trustees or governors responded to the Derby Telegraph’s request for comments on the report.
TIMELINE TO CRISIS AT AL-MADINAH
September 2012: School opens in Friar Gate to about 200 pupils.
September 5, 2013: Rumours start about Government investigation into financial irregularities at the school following complaints to the Department for Education by whistleblowers.
September 20: Derby Telegraph publishes story revealing female staff are forced to wear Muslim head coverings, or hijabs, and segregation of boys and girls in classes.
October 1 and 2: Ofsted inspectors visit school, which closes suddenly at the end of the first day of inspection, for three days after safeguarding issues.
October 7: School reopens.
October 8: Schools Minister Lord Nash sends ultimatum letter to trustee Shazia Parveen outlining timescale for deadlines and action plan. He also sends a report into the financial situation at the school carried out by the Education Funding Agency.
October 13: School responds to minister ahead of first deadline.
October 15: First deadline. School publishes changes in policy regarding wearing of hijab, as ordered by Lord Nash.
October 17: Ofsted report published, calling the school “dysfunctional” and “inadequate” which prompts Lord Nash to write to school and say: “I am even more convinced of the need for very decisive and urgent action.”
October 22: Second deadline passes with no further comment from the Department for Education.
October 25: Shazia Parveen announces she will step down as chair of governors and mysteriously adds “as soon as the transition is over”.
November 1: Deadline for action plan to be submitted and trust chairman Shazia Parveen says the management has done “everything humanly possible to respond professionally in a timely manner to prove we are committed, dedicated and want nothing but good for our communities and children we serve”.
Since then the DfE has remained tight-lipped about what is happening. It has issued the following statement: “Lord Nash wrote to Shazia Parveen, the chair of the Al-Madinah Trust, on 8 October placing 17 requirements on the Trust, which they must satisfy or risk their funding agreement being terminated.
“The last of those deadlines has now passed. We are actively considering the responses from the Trust. It would be inappropriate to go into any further detail at this stage.”