DfE adviser Tom Bennett’s firm sees assets increase, though its number of employees remains small for a company which was involved in a major government teacher training drive

The assets of a company run by one of English education’s most prominent figures nearly doubled last year –but he still seems to be running a very small firm, compared both to the amount of cash it was awarded by the government for a high-profile training scheme and to its stated ambitions.

Anvil Education Ltd, which is owned by the government’s long-time behaviour adviser Tom Bennett, recorded an £82,774 rise in its “current assets” in 2019-20 – up from £93,713 in 2018-19 to £176,487 in the year to 31^st May, 2020, its just-released annual accounts reveal.

This is a near-tenfold increase on the figure of £18,543 reported in 2017, when Anvil was starting the work associated with a contract worth nearly £1 million from the Department for Education, awarded as part of the latter’s Teaching and Leadership Innovation Fund (TLIF).

As a small company, Anvil only has to produce “micro company accounts”. These are very short compared to the much more detailed reports published by larger organisations, including multi-academy trusts, and provide only sparse information about a company.

But a sense of that small scale comes from the number of its employees, as stated within these financial statements, which were published last week. Anvil had an average of only two employees during 2019-20, they state. This was the same figure as the previous year.