The Department for Education has issued Orchard Learning Alliance with a formal notice to improve over financial management. The notice was published on 29 May 2026, although the letter itself is dated 11 May 2026, and it states that the department considers the trust’s breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook 2025 serious enough to justify intervention. Orchard Learning Alliance is a multi-academy trust based at Waingels College in Woodley, Reading. (gov.uk) The published letter says the department’s concerns relate to financial oversight, in-year monitoring, internal scrutiny, escalation by the accounting officer, value for money, cost control and workforce planning. Annex A adds that the department has identified weaknesses in assurance arrangements and serious failures of financial governance. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
This is a formal intervention step rather than a routine request for information. DfE’s collection page lists Orchard Learning Alliance among its open academy trust notices to improve, while the Academy trust handbook says compliance with the handbook is a condition of each trust’s funding agreement. The notice therefore sits within the department’s formal funding and oversight process for academy trusts in England. (gov.uk) The notice does not say the trust is being closed, but it does make clear that continued failure could trigger stronger action. If Orchard does not meet the notice requirements, the department says it may revise the notice, consider contractual intervention options, treat the failure as a funding agreement breach that may result in termination, and, where appropriate, refer matters to the Charity Commission or the Insolvency Service. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The immediate effect is the loss of several delegated financial freedoms. The letter states that Orchard must obtain department approval in advance for matters such as special staff severance payments, compensation payments, debt write-offs, guarantees and indemnities, certain asset disposals, longer land or buildings arrangements beyond funding agreement limits, and some General Annual Grant carry-forward or pooling decisions. The annex also requires pre-approval for all related-party transactions for the full duration of the notice. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) For trustees and finance staff, that means decisions that would usually sit within trust-level authority now move into a tighter approval process. The letter is explicit that retrospective approval requests would themselves count as non-compliance with the handbook. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Annex B sets out a detailed reporting timetable. Orchard must submit audited reports, accounts and statements to the department by 31 December 2026 and in each subsequent year until the notice is lifted, while the Budget Forecast Return must be filed by 31 August each year. The trust must also show, at the five-month and nine-month points in each year, that actual performance and forecasts match its recovery profile or that any divergence is backed by clear mitigating action. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The department is also requiring more frequent management information. For at least 12 months from agreement of the plan, and then at a frequency set by DfE thereafter, the trust must provide monthly financial information. By the 26th of each month it must send the previous month’s income and expenditure account, cashflow forecast, balance sheet and aged debtors and creditors report. Board and finance committee minutes must also be sent to the department by the end of the month in which meetings take place. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The annex moves beyond reporting into governance repair. Orchard must ensure its annual report and accounts comply with the Charity Commission’s Statement of Recommended Practice and the Academy Accounts Direction, provide internal audit findings for 2025/26 by December 2026, and attend regular review meetings with the department. These requirements sit alongside a formal action plan that the trust is expected to agree with DfE and then implement in full. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) A School Resource Management Adviser, or SRMA, is an experienced professional trained and approved through a national programme to review how schools and trusts use money and resources. Orchard’s annex says an SRMA deployment was assigned in December 2025, with an initial face-to-face visit in February 2026, and requires the trust to produce a credible action plan within six weeks of completion, with the deployment due to be completed by July 2026. The same annex says any further independent trustees must be agreed in advance with DfE by 15 June 2026, with evidence of board consideration due by 20 July 2026. (gov.uk)
For parents and staff, the published notice is focused on financial management and governance rather than educational performance. The department says it is mindful of protecting the educational interests of children and of the extra pressure this may create for staff, and it says officials will stay in regular contact with the trust while the improvement work is under way. The trust must publish the notice on its own website within 14 days of the GOV.UK publication and keep it there until the notice is lifted. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) In practical terms, the department is telling Orchard Learning Alliance that it must show, month by month, that its finances, assurance arrangements and board oversight are moving back into compliance. The notice remains live until DfE is satisfied that every condition in Annex B has been met and that compliance with the handbook has been restored. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)