The Department for Education has issued Orchard Learning Alliance with a formal Notice to Improve over financial management. In a letter dated 11 May 2026 and published on GOV.UK on 29 May 2026, the department said the trust’s breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook 2025 were serious enough to justify intervention and that concerns remained about its fragile financial position and the effectiveness of its financial management arrangements. (gov.uk)
The letter to chair David Williams says the issues go beyond a narrow accounting problem. The Department for Education identifies weaknesses in financial oversight and planning, regular financial monitoring, the quality and timeliness of management information reported to trustees, internal scrutiny, the accounting officer’s duty to escalate concerns, and value for money, cost control, workforce planning and affordability. Taken together, the notice points to weaknesses in both financial reporting and board assurance. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The immediate consequence is that Orchard Learning Alliance loses a set of delegated financial freedoms while the notice remains in force. The trust must now obtain advance Department for Education approval for transactions including special staff severance payments, compensation payments, debt and loss write-offs, guarantees, certain asset disposals, longer land and building leases, and some decisions involving unspent GAG, the general annual grant used to fund academies. The notice states that retrospective approval requests would count as a breach of the handbook. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Annex B sets out a detailed compliance schedule. The trust must submit audited financial statements by 31 December 2026 and in each later year until the notice is lifted, file its Budget Forecast Return by the annual deadline, and show at month 5 and month 9 that its actual position and forecasts match the recovery profile in its financial plan or are supported by clear mitigating action. The department also requires monthly financial information, including income and expenditure reports, cashflow, balance sheet data and aged debtors and creditors reports, with management accounts due by the 26th of each month. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Scrutiny is also being tightened at governance level. Orchard Learning Alliance must send trust board and finance committee minutes to the Department for Education by the end of the month in which meetings take place, attend regular review meetings with officials, and ensure its annual report and accounts comply with the Charity Commission Statement of Recommended Practice and the academy accounts direction. All related party transactions must also be approved in advance for the full period of the notice. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Further conditions focus on assurance and recovery planning. The trust must provide its latest internal audit findings for 2025/26, together with action taken, by December 2026. It must also complete its current School Resource Management Adviser process by July 2026 and then submit an action plan within 6 weeks showing which recommendations will be adopted, how they will support financial recovery and sustainability, and how progress will be monitored each month. The annex also says the board should consider appointing further independent trustees, with evidence of that discussion due by 20 July 2026. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
For education policy readers, the significance is that a Notice to Improve is a formal regulatory step under the Academy Trust Handbook, not a routine exchange with the department. The handbook states that failure to comply can amount to a funding agreement breach, and the Orchard Learning Alliance letter adds that continued non-compliance could lead to a revised notice, further conditions, contractual intervention, possible termination, and referral to the Charity Commission or Insolvency Service where appropriate. The trust must publish the notice on its own website within 14 days of the 29 May 2026 GOV.UK publication date and keep it there until the department confirms that every condition has been met. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)