An academy chief who asked staff to reapply for their jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive while claiming thousands of pounds in perks, including the lease of a luxury Jaguar for him and his wife, has been put on “temporary leave” by his employer.
A spokesman for the Academy Transformation Trust (ATT), where Ian Cleland earns £180,000 a year, declined to explain why its chief executive was absent despite recently claiming that it was “committed to being open and transparent in all that we do”.
The trust’s managing director, Joyce Hodgetts, was also on “temporary leave,” a spokesman confirmed, but again declined to offer an explanation.
Cleland was at the centre of a row during the summer, after he told staff across ATT’s 20 academies that more than 30 staff roles were at risk due to “significant financial challenges”. Weeks later the Observer revealed that the taxpayer was paying Cleland to lease and have joint insurance with his wife on an XJ Premium Luxury V6 Jaguar car. Included in nearly £3,000 worth of receipts was payment for servicing the car and the purchase of new tyres. Cleland had also spent £3,000 of taxpayers’ money on first-class rail travel, while dining expenses racked up on his taxpayer-funded credit card include a meal with other staff at a Marco Pierre White restaurant totalling £471 and at the Bank restaurant in Birmingham, at a cost of £703.45.
At the time the trust’s director of finance, Mike Giddings, said that Cleland’s role “requires significant, regular travel throughout the regions where our academies are based, hence the maintenance costs, including tyres and vehicle health checks”. He said “all expense claims are carefully considered to ensure that they are directly related to the operational costs of the business”.
Last month, a secondary-school principal at one of the trust’s academies was sacked following an investigation into breaches of safeguarding rules. In a letter to parents, the school’s sponsors said the decision had been taken because of what it called “serious breaches” in applying safeguarding procedures.
However, a spokesman for ATT said that the incident was not linked to the current “situation”, adding: “Academy Transformation Trust’s chief executive officer, Ian Cleland, and managing director, Joyce Hodgetts, are currently on temporary leave. The trust’s executive team – Claire Pritchard, director of resources, Lisa Crausby, principal improvement director, and Mike Giddings, director of finance – continue to lead the organisation, reporting into the board.”
Cleland announced in March that ATT was seeking to save £500,000 from its schools in the Midlands and east of England and had asked staff to reapply for their jobs. “The education sector is facing a number of significant financial challenges across the country with all schools, academies and multi-academy trusts being affected,” he said at the time. “As a result, it is essential that we review our costs and consider where savings can be made, without impacting on the quality of education.”
Despite the financial strains on the education system, evidence has emerged in recent weeks of high salaries being taken by executives and principals across the country. It emerged last week that the head of a south London primary school federation earned £370,000 last year. Sir Craig Tunstall, head of the Gipsy Hill Federation, was paid £330,000 plus £44,000 in pension contributions by Lambeth council in 2015.
