DfE Issues Orchard Learning Alliance Notice to Improve

On 29 May 2026, the Department for Education published a notice to improve for Orchard Learning Alliance, with the underlying letter dated 11 May 2026. Official schools data lists Orchard Learning Alliance as a multi-academy trust based in Woodley, Reading, with 10 academies. (gov.uk) **What this means:** this is not the same as a school closing, and it is not a one-line admin update. In the Academy Trust Handbook, a notice to improve is a formal intervention used when the Department for Education has concerns about a trust’s financial management or governance, and Orchard is currently listed in the government’s open notices collection. (gov.uk)

In its letter, the Department for Education says Orchard’s breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook were serious enough to justify the notice. The problems it names cover financial oversight, regular monitoring and management information, internal scrutiny, the accounting officer’s duty to escalate concerns, and value for money and affordability. The annex adds that the trust has weaknesses in cost control and assurance arrangements, alongside ‘serious failures of financial governance’. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The letter also says there are still ‘significant concerns’ about Orchard’s ‘fragile financial position’ and about how effective its financial management arrangements are. In plain terms, the Department is saying the trust now has to show, with evidence, that the board can spot problems early, challenge them properly and keep public money under control. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)

This matters because academy trusts handle public money. The Academy Trust Handbook says boards must keep sound internal controls, manage risk, prepare and monitor financial plans, submit budget forecast returns, and produce monthly management accounts that the chair and board see. Those are not side issues; they are part of how a trust proves it is financially sustainable. (gov.uk) When a notice to improve is issued, the handbook says the trust must comply with it, and failure to do so can amount to a funding agreement breach. The handbook also allows the Department for Education to revoke delegated powers, which means the trust loses some freedom to make certain financial decisions without advance approval. (gov.uk)

For Orchard Learning Alliance, that loss of freedom is concrete. The notice says the trust must get Department for Education approval in advance for things such as special staff severance, compensation payments, writing off debts and losses, guarantees or indemnities, some asset disposals, some lease arrangements, carrying forward unspent grant beyond limits, and pooling general annual grant. The notice also says retrospective approval would itself count as a breach. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The annexes then set out a timetable of proof. Orchard must submit audited accounts by 31 December 2026 and keep them unqualified, send its budget forecast return by 31 August each year, reforecast at the five-month and nine-month points, and provide monthly management accounts by the 26th of each month. Those accounts must include income and expenditure, cashflow, a balance sheet, and aged debtors and creditors reports. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)

The oversight does not stop at spreadsheets. Orchard must send board and finance committee minutes to the Department by the end of the month in which meetings happen, attend regular review meetings, and make sure its annual report and accounts comply with charity accounting rules and the academy accounts direction. The trust must also give the Department its internal audit findings for 2025/26 by December 2026, and all related party transactions must be approved in advance. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) One striking condition is the requirement around a School Resource Management Adviser, or SRMA. Government guidance says SRMAs are specialists who give schools and trusts hands-on advice at no cost, and Orchard’s notice says the trust must turn the adviser’s recommendations into a credible action plan aimed at financial recovery, sustainability, stronger governance and staffing structures. The notice also tells the trust to consider appointing more independent trustees, with prior agreement by 15 June 2026 and evidence back to the Department by 20 July 2026. (gov.uk)

For teachers, pupils and families, the biggest question is usually simple: does this change daily school life straight away? Not necessarily. The Department’s own letter says it is mindful of protecting the educational interests of children and of the pressure this may place on staff, while the wider guidance says notices to improve are used to protect public funds while problems are fixed. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) But it would be a mistake to dismiss this as boring back-office news. Money rules shape staffing, support services, estates, planning and the trust’s ability to make decisions without asking the Department first. Government guidance says trusts are usually expected to remain under a notice to improve for at least nine months so a full cycle of financial returns can be checked. So the real story here is accountability: Orchard Learning Alliance now has to show, month by month, that its financial controls are strong enough to match the responsibility of running publicly funded schools. (gov.uk)