The Department for Education has published a notice to improve for Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School, with the gov.uk publication dated 5 June 2026 and the letter itself dated 11 May 2026. The department says the letter and annexes operate as a written notice to improve financial management at the trust. (gov.uk) Addressed to the chair of trustees, the letter states that the department judged the trust’s breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook to be significant enough to justify intervention on financial grounds. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
In the letter, the Department for Education says its concerns centre on the trust’s weak financial position and weaknesses in financial management, governance and oversight, despite steps already taken by the trust to strengthen accounting arrangements and internal controls. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The department identifies breaches against handbook expectations on board accountability, financial sustainability, realistic budgeting, timely action on budget variances and the requirement to secure prior approval for borrowing, including overdraft facilities. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Annex A sets out the trigger for the notice in more concrete terms. It says the trust failed to inform the department that it had entered an overdraft position and did not have sufficient funds to meet outstanding creditor payments and payroll, which the department says resulted in multiple breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) That framing matters because the intervention is not presented as routine monitoring. It follows cashflow pressure and board-level oversight failures serious enough for the department to place the trust under formal recovery conditions. This is an inference drawn from the grounds set out in the notice and annexes. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The notice also removes a set of delegated freedoms. Until the Department for Education is satisfied that the conditions have been met, the trust must obtain advance approval for transactions previously covered by those delegations, including special staff severance payments, compensation payments, debt and loss write-offs, guarantees and indemnities, certain asset disposals, longer leasehold or tenancy arrangements, some carry-forward of unspent grant and pooling of general annual grant. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The letter is explicit that retrospective approval will count as a breach. In practice, that means tighter departmental control over discretionary financial decisions while the notice remains in force. This is an inference from the revocation of delegated authorities and the approval requirements set out in the letter. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Annex B sets out a detailed compliance programme. The trust must produce a board-approved financial recovery and improvement action plan, drawing on School Resource Management Adviser recommendations, cost reduction measures and Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning, and then provide monthly progress updates through its management accounts. The same annex requires the appointment of a suitably qualified chief financial officer, with the new postholder expected to join the Department for Education’s mentoring programme and agree a start date for that support by 29 June 2026. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The timetable is tight. The recovery plan was due to the department by 1 June 2026, the external governance review must be commissioned by 15 June 2026, and the trust must continue monthly submissions of management accounts, cashflow data, aged debtors and creditors reports, plus board and finance committee minutes. Audited reports and statements must be submitted by 31 December 2026 and budget forecast returns by the department’s deadline for each year the notice remains in force. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The notice goes beyond short-term cash recovery. The trust must also produce a dated action plan to address issues raised in its management letter and internal scrutiny report, and it must consider joining a strong Church multi-academy trust in line with diocesan expectations, with termly evidence of that work beginning no later than 17 July 2026. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The Department for Education says it will monitor progress through regular case reviews and may issue a revised notice with additional conditions if sufficient improvement is not made. Failure to comply can be treated as a breach of the funding agreement, potentially leading to contractual intervention, termination of the agreement, or referral to the Charity Commission and or Insolvency Service. The trust must also publish the notice on its own website within 14 days of publication on gov.uk and keep it there until the notice is lifted. For schools policy readers, the document shows how financial intervention can be used to address governance, reporting and structural questions alongside immediate cash control. The final sentence is an inference based on the notice terms. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)