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Leaked emails spark criticism of Gove’s fast-tracked charity grant

Finance | Gareth Jones | 31 Aug 2011

Questions have again been raised about the independence of the New Schools Network (NSN), after a leaked email showed that civil servants had been pressured to fast-track a grant to the charity by government advisers.

According to the Guardian, Dominic Cummings, a Tory strategist close to the education secretary Michal Gove, wrote: “MG telling the civil servants to find a way to give NSN cash without delay."

He reportedly added: “"Labour has handed hundreds of millions to leftie orgs – if u guys cant navigate this thro the bureauc then not a chance of any new schools starting!!"

Cummings is understood to have freelanced for the NSN between July and December, having previously worked for the charity on a voluntary basis in June.

Another leaked email reportedly suggests that NSN’s director Rachel Wolf, herself a former adviser to Gove, was asked by one of Gove’s staff to provide the prime minister with “a line to take” after a Tory councillor suggested that a free school in Birmingham could be “socially divisive”.

NSN was given a £500,000 grant by the Department of Education without competition in the summer of 2010, to provide “a personalised and cost-effective service” to anyone interested in setting up a free school.

The following November, the Charity Commission said that it had reminded the charity’s trustees of their duties and provided advice on retaining independence. It did so in response to a complaint from Labour MP Lisa Nandy about the independence of the charity.

Money “handed out like confetti”

Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow education secretary, said there is a “severe lack of transparency” around Gove's free school programme.

"The Secretary of State has close personal and political links to the New Schools Network. Before now, I have questioned whether the award of a grant to this organisation followed due process. This email appears to confirm that it did not. At the very least it appears there is a conflict of interest.

He added: "It appears that cheques are handed out like confetti to certain favoured projects while mainstream schools are left to crumble with their building projects cancelled.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said that when the Free Schools policy was launched, NSN was the only organisation performing this role.

“This is why it was best placed to help get the policy off the ground quickly, and to help meet the demand of parents for good, new local schools,” she said.

“It is legitimate for Government Departments to award grants to charities and other organisations in certain circumstances. This in line with procurement rules and the Department for Education has done this before.”

Wolf told civilsociety.co.uk that Cummings only became a governemnt adviser after he had left NSN.

She added that over half of NSN's funding this year had come from non-government sources, and that she understood that all future government funding for free schools would be tendered for competitively.

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