One of England\u2019s largest multi-academy trusts has reported a significant turnaround in its finances, moving from a \u00a33 million deficit to a \u00a33.4 million surplus in a year.<\/p>\n
Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) recorded 41 schools and a revenue surplus of \u00a36.4 million in 2024-25, its latest accounts<\/a> state.<\/p>\n This reduced to an underlying surplus of \u00a33.4 million once capital movements, pension adjustments and the use of \u00a31.5 million of revenue funding on capital projects were excluded.<\/p>\n The comparable figure for the previous financial year was a \u00a33 million underlying deficit, meaning there was a year-on-year turnaround of more than \u00a36 million.<\/p>\n The trust, which was formerly led by Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver<\/a>, has 12 primaries, 27 secondaries, one junior school and one alternative provision setting.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the trust said that, in 2023-24, it made a \u201cstrategic decision\u201d to run an in-year deficit to \u201csupport the transition from post-Covid recovery to the implementation of the trust\u2019s new improvement strategy\u201d. They said this included a new key stage 3 reading strategy.<\/p>\n The year-on-year change in the trust\u2019s overall balance also reflects a \u201cbetter than expected\u201d net pay settlement when the core schools budget grant was confirmed in September 2024 and \u201ca reduction in the amount transferred between revenue reserves and capital reserves\u201d, the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n The trust used \u00a31.5 million of revenue funding for capital projects, down from \u00a33.3 million the previous year.<\/p>\n Reserves surpass \u00a343m<\/p>\n OGAT reported total expenditure of \u00a3263.6 million during the 2024-25 financial year, of which \u00a3270.1 million was recurrent grant funding and other income.<\/p>\n The trust\u2019s income increased by \u00a316.8 million compared with the previous year. It said this was due to an increase in pupil numbers and a corresponding increase in funding per pupil. Its day-to-day expenditure increased by a smaller margin.<\/p>\n OGAT\u2019s pupil numbers increased slightly during this period, from 30,727 to 30,793.<\/p>\n It also benefited from \u00a31.86 million in interest from short-term bank deposits.<\/p>\n The trust\u2019s unrestricted reserves as of August 2025 were \u00a321 million, with combined restricted and unrestricted reserves of \u00a343.7 million. This was up 9 per cent from \u00a340.2 million in 2023-24.<\/p>\n Contingency pot lowered<\/p>\n The accounts show that the trust reduced the level of reserves it holds as contingency to release funding for capital investment.<\/p>\n OGAT said it had historically aimed to hold contingency reserves equivalent to four weeks of salary costs, which would have been \u00a315.6 million in 2025-26, but reduced this to \u00a313.3 million during the year.<\/p>\n It said the move was consistent with Department for Education guidance on academy trust reserves and allowed additional funds to be invested in capital projects.<\/p>\n The accounts show that no unallocated reserves remained at the end of the financial year, with funds either held as contingency or already committed to capital projects.<\/p>\n \u00a330m for capital projects<\/p>\n The trust said it had committed \u00a330.3 million to capital projects, of which \u00a32.6 million was contractually committed by the end of the financial year.<\/p>\n OGAT also said it had approved an additional \u00a313 million of capital expenditure for 2025-26 and beyond.<\/p>\n The projects are primarily intended to address \u201ca legacy of underinvestment\u201d prior to the trust taking on schools, and to ensure buildings are fit for purpose, it said.<\/p>\n Planned works include rewiring projects, condition improvements, roof replacements, energy efficiency measures and an IT replacement programme, the trust added.<\/p>\n Staff costs rise<\/p>\n Staffing remains the trust\u2019s largest area of expenditure, with staff costs rising to \u00a3193.3 million, up from \u00a3180.9 million the previous year.<\/p>\n The trust said it continued to apply national pay and conditions frameworks for both teachers and support staff, and had \u201charmonised\u201d the pay structure for support staff across the trust to ensure fair pay.<\/p>\n Under last year\u2019s national deal, teachers received a 5.5 per cent uplift<\/a>.<\/p>\n The trust employed an average of 4,689 staff during the year, including 2,105 teachers.<\/p>\n Lee Wilson, the trust\u2019s CEO<\/a>, earned a salary of \u00a3205,000 to \u00a3210,000, excluding taxable benefits and the trust\u2019s employer pension contributions.\u00a0<\/p>\n His predecessor, Sir Martyn, had earned between \u00a340,000 and \u00a345,000 for his time at OGAT between September and 14 November 2023, before he left to lead Ofsted. His full-time salary the previous year had been from \u00a3190,000 to \u00a3195,000.<\/p>\n PFI and mental health flagged as risks<\/p>\n The trust highlighted funding, recruitment and retention, building condition and future private finance initiative (PFI) exit arrangements as key areas of risk.<\/p>\n It also pointed to community engagement, pupil attendance and young people\u2019s social, emotional and mental health as ongoing issues for the trust.<\/p>\n The accounts said that the PFI exit arrangements for nine academies between 2031 and 2037 represent a longer-term financial consideration.<\/p>\n You can now get the UK\u2019s most-trusted source of education news in a mobile app. Get Tes magazine on iOS<\/a> and on Android<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of England\u2019s largest multi-academy trusts has reported a significant turnaround in its finances, moving from a \u00a33…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-682924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115861264067150011","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}