Debt-stricken multi-academy trust admits it is failing to pay bills on time – while seeking new “Director of People” on a six-figure salary

St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust appears in dire financial straits, despite having been under close DfE supervision since 2023

 

A Catholic multi-academy trust which is in the midst of a multi-faceted financial crisis has told governors that it has been failing to pay commercial suppliers on time because of its “deficit position”, Education Uncovered can reveal.

The St Ralph Sherwin Catholic Multi-Academy Trust, which runs 25 schools from its base in Derby, has revealed that there are “overdue invoices across the trust,” amid concerns from parents that confidence in the schools is ebbing and amid, I understand, huge pressure on headteachers and classroom staff.

At one stage in email correspondence last week, a trust senior manager even faced a claim from a governor that, while the organisation could afford to pay for grass to be cut at one of its schools, it did not have the funds for the clippings to be taken away.

St Ralph Sherwin, which is one of three MATs ultimately controlled by the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, has been under a Department for Education Notice to Improve since July 2023 and as of 2024-25 was in a worse financial position than any of England’s 2,200 other academy trusts, this website’s analysis of DfE data has revealed. In recent months its leadership has faced “weekly meetings” with the DfE, correspondence indicates. 

The trust was as of last week facing 40 compulsory redundancies, its chief executive has indicated. The Bishop of Nottingham, in correspondence with a parent seen by this website, said two weeks ago that the trust was looking to reduce its overall staff headcount by “perhaps 10 per cent”.

Controversy has been fuelled, however, by the fact that the organisation is currently seeking new recruits to its central team, one of them on a six-figure salary. It has recently been in receipt of a fresh tranche of emergency funding from the DfE, the emails also reveal.