There have been rumours in Hay this week that Gwernyfed High School would not close after all. Much as I would like to confirm the rumour I am afraid it’s not true. What has happened is that the Powys Cabinet discussed on Tuesday a paper that set out for the first time the scale of deficit at Brecon High School that accrued over time. Although I have been warning for some years that Brecon’s deficit is heading towards £1 Million, this was always denied. Now the LA is confirming that the figure could even be in an excess of this amount. Unfortunately, whilst this acknowledgement of the dire financial situation in Brecon is welcome, the paper was still flawed and I very wearily wrote again to the council leader, see below. The current state of play with the consultation process is that ORS the organisation pulling together all the responses to Powys Consultation document are working on this and their report has to be given to the local authority by 31 August. ORS have been feeding key information to Powys piecemeal which is not helpful and is more about the local authority wanting to rush everything through. The full county council will discuss the ORS report at the beginning of September with the cabinet decision coming by the end of the same month. A number of us will be firing information and questions at the cabinet and councillors over the next two months to keep up the pressure and I will copy what we are doing on to this site to keep you up to date. If when reading, please feel free to add your voice by writing too. Many thanks JOHN FITZGERALD 5 Twin Oaks Glasbury-on-Wye Powys HR3 5PE 01497 847426 – johnfitz59@hotmail.com 27 July 2016 Dear Cllr Thomas I understand that at your cabinet meeting on 25 July a paper about Brecon HS financial situation was considered. Having read the paper, it is good that at last an attempt was being made to bring together within Powys CC the whole Brecon deficit history, after so many years of failing to do so. What a pity therefore there are serious flaws. In 2013 the cumulative deficit went from £705K to £585K when the then cabinet awarded the school a “special payment” of £120K to offset against the deficit, subsequently in 2013 the deficit was converted to a loan of £432K. The mystery is what happened to the other £153K, there had not been cuts down to that amount or additional income provided. The original figure for the loan was £454K but following yet another protest by Brecon HS, a meeting was held between the LA and representatives of the school and a further £22K reduction was implemented, not because cuts were made but because the amount was “negotiated” in the meeting. In short £153K altogether was removed from the deficit without any explanation of why or how. The only conclusion I can draw (no one has been able to give me any other reasonable explanation) is that it was a “backdoor” writing off of that part of the debt which would have been unlawful as such actions can only be taken when a school closes. It is worth noting that a number of the people involved in creating that deficit are still very much part of decision making in relation to the school budget. Now fast forward to your meeting on Tuesday. During the discussion the head of financial services confirmed the school had a surplus of £209K in 2014/15. Under a Freedom of Information request in May 2015 I received a set of figures confirming that amount on 9 June 2015. However, I challenged the figure through the FOI system because: i) On the 24 March 2015 the cabinet considered a paper requesting a deferment by Brecon HS of the repayments of a previous deficit which was converted to a loan in 2013. This request was made despite the fact that the paper stated that the school was facing a £300k+ deficit for the year to 31 March 2015 but steps were being taken to reduce it. ii) I pointed out that over half a million pounds would have to be cut from the budget, or equivalent in income added, to achieve that surplus in the time from the cabinet paper was prepared to the 31 March 2015, a maximum of three weeks. That would have including reducing the £300+k projected deficit at the beginning of March and the production of £209Ksurplus 3 weeks later. Physically impossible. I therefore challenged the figure. iii) On the 24 June I received the response to the FOI challenge with a revised set of figures confirming the £209K as a deficit, not a surplus. This at least made some logical sense even if £91K had disappeared from the projected deficit. This raises a number of questions, if the surplus is correct: 1. How was over half a million pounds cut from the budget or equivalent income added in the last three weeks of the financial year? 2. Why was a set of revised figures showing the £209K as a deficit, which at least had a degree of logic, sent to me under FOI when now it is being suggested this could be untrue. To send completely inaccurate information in response to an FOI request is a serious offence, carrying a significant fine. Therefore, Cllr, which is the correct figure, the surplus which was physically unachievable in the last three weeks of the financial year 2014/15 or the deficit figure which if it is incorrect then you need to explain why your officers so seriously misled me under the Freedom of Information legislation? It also means that the LA’s own projection for 2 years hence (a deficit of £900K) is in doubt. Added to which there is considerable doubt about the real 2013 deficit given the he LA does not have the power to negotiate a deficit downwards. Lastly I note Brecon HS has to come up with a recovery plan by 8 September, by my calculations that will be their fourth with the three previous ones not succeeding. I am enclosing a copy of a summary report from the Auditor General for Wales in 2012 in relation to an investigation into the Brecon HS deficit which I instigated. You will see it is highly critical of the LA’s failure to use its legal powers robustly to deal with the problem such as removing delegated responsibility from the governors for setting budgets although the ultimate sanction is to surcharge the governors. Calling for repeated recovery plans could hardly be defined as robust to use AGW’s words. The reason I can only send you a summary is because the Powys CC Chief Executive, to whom the full report was sent, refused permission for me to have a copy even though I instigated the investigation. Neither was it shared formally with the then cabinet from which we can deduce that the criticism must have been damning. Given you will shortly be making decisions about the future of Brecon HS (linked to Gwernyfed HS ‘s future) It seems to me, and I would suggest most sensible people, that the plans for the future will be in deep trouble if the budget problems in Brecon are not fully dealt with. Simply closing the school for 24 Hours and writing off the debt will make no difference if you do not deal with the underlying causes of the problems, namely people making budget decisions who either have no idea how to do so or who deliberately ignore their statutory obligations, coupled with senior officers who seem unable to provide strong management. Yours sincerely JOHN FITZGERALD