Why Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School got a DfE notice. ([gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-to-improve-sacred-heart-of-mary-girls-school))

If you saw the Department for Education’s notice to improve for Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School and thought it sounded like dry admin language, it is worth slowing down. The DfE published the notice on 5 June 2026, based on a letter dated 11 May 2026, saying the trust’s breaches of the Academy Trust Handbook were serious enough to justify formal intervention on financial grounds. (gov.uk) The official letter also adds an important note of balance. The DfE says it recognises positive action already taken by the trust and the co-operation shown in talks with officials, but says worries remain about the trust’s financial position and about governance, oversight and financial management. That matters because the handbook is not optional guidance; GOV.UK says compliance with it is a condition of an academy trust’s funding agreement. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)

**What this means:** a notice to improve, often shortened to NtI, is the DfE’s formal way of saying a trust must put its finances or governance right under closer supervision. The 2025 Academy Trust Handbook says the department may issue and publish an NtI when it has concerns about financial management or governance, including cash-flow problems, insolvency risk or poor internal scrutiny. (gov.uk) Once a notice is in place, the trust must comply. The handbook says failure to do so becomes a funding agreement breach, and the Sacred Heart notice says certain delegated freedoms are removed, so some decisions now need DfE approval in advance rather than being signed off locally as normal. In plain English, that means less room for error and much closer checking from the centre. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)

In this case, the sharpest concern sits in Annex A. The DfE says the trust did not tell the department that it had entered an overdraft position and did not have enough cash to cover creditors and payroll, which led to multiple breaches of the handbook. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) If you are wondering why that is treated so seriously, the answer is quite simple. School finance is not only about having a plan on paper; it is also about whether wages and bills can be paid when they fall due. DfE guidance on operating a trust as a ‘going concern’ says the test is whether there are sufficient funds to meet obligations such as payroll and trade creditors over at least the next 12 months, and it warns that cash-flow trouble can quickly become a major risk. (gov.uk)

The notice then sets out a long homework list. Sacred Heart of Mary Girls’ School must produce a financial recovery and improvement plan, appoint a suitably qualified chief financial officer, get that new CFO into the DfE’s mentoring programme by 29 June 2026, respond to risks raised in its management letter and internal scrutiny report, commission an external governance review by 15 June 2026, and give termly evidence that it has considered joining a strong Church Multi-Academy Trust, with a first update due by 17 July 2026. DfE guidance says an external governance review is an independent check on how effective a board is and how well it meets required standards. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) One date is easy to misread, so it is worth being precise. The recovery plan was due to the department by 1 June 2026, which is earlier than the 5 June 2026 publication date on GOV.UK because the letter itself was sent on 11 May 2026. The notice also requires monthly management accounts, cash-flow reports, aged debtors and creditors reports, and meeting minutes, with some documents due by the 15th of each month and audited statements due by 31 December 2026. (gov.uk)

Some of the technical terms in the notice are easier to understand than they first appear. Integrated curriculum and financial planning, or ICFP, is DfE’s method for helping schools plan the curriculum they want to offer using the funding they actually have. School resource management advisers, known as SRMAs, are experienced professionals approved through a national programme who help schools and trusts use money and staffing well; the notice says the trust’s recovery plan must show how SRMA recommendations have been used. (gov.uk) The other phrase worth knowing is ‘internal scrutiny’. DfE guidance says every academy trust should have an independent programme that checks whether controls, systems and risk management are really working as they should. So when the notice demands an action plan linked to the management letter and internal scrutiny report, it is asking the board not just to spot weaknesses, but to prove it is fixing them. (gov.uk)

For families and staff, the practical reading is this: the notice starts a period of tighter oversight, fixed deadlines and reduced financial freedom for the trust. The DfE says it can revise the notice if progress is too slow, consider contractual intervention, and treat failure to comply as a funding agreement breach; the letter also says continued non-compliance could be referred to the Charity Commission or the Insolvency Service. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) There is also a useful media-literacy lesson here. When you see a headline about a school notice, ask who issued it, what the concern actually is, and what evidence or deadlines sit behind it. In this case, the Department for Education’s own documents give clear answers: the concern is financial management and governance, the deadlines run through June, July and December 2026, and the trust must also place the notice on its own website within 14 days of publication and keep it there until the notice is lifted. (gov.uk)