£383k paid for school services

RAJA MIAH

A FAILING Oldham free school paid £383,787 to a company owned by its chief executive for services ranging from PE coaches to marketing.

Collective Spirit, which opened in Chadderton in September, 2013, amid fierce opposition, made the payments to the now dissolved Collective Community Partnerships CIC, where Raja Miah was a director.

The firm also received £319,365 from Manchester Creative Studio. Both schools are state-funded and are run by Collective Spirit Multi Academy Trust whose chief executive is Mr Miah.

Collective Community Partnerships, dissolved last month, listed its principal activities as "supporting children, young people and families from disadvantaged backgrounds" and at those "at risk of exclusion and underachievement in the education system".

The payments are shown in the schools' financial statements for 2013/14 and 2014/15 and also include expenditure for office space rental, cleaning, security, auditing, caretaking, transport, recruitment and ICT.

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon is urging the government to close Collective Spirit Free School after it was given the bottom grade of inadequate by Ofsted in June and placed in special measures.

He described it as one of the most damning Ofsted reports he had seen after the education watchdog said the school was failing to give pupils an acceptable standard of education.

Mr McMahon has also raised his concerns with the regional schools commissioner Vicky Beer, adding: "I have received representations from concerned constituents due to the recent poor Ofsted report and as a result met with the regional schools commissioner in July.

"All bodies spending public money must do so appropriately. I am not clear if any rules have been broken, but if they have then action should follow."

Oldham Council was forced by the government to hand over part of the former South Chadderton School site in Butterworth Lane to Collective Spirit ­- despite objections that it was a prime development site. Mr McMahon was council leader at the time and opposed the school which describes itself as a "grammar school offer for ordinary families".


Mr Miah co-founded the former charity Peacemaker in Oldham in 1997 to bring white and Asian youths together. Praised by the Home Office, its work came to prominence after the 2001 Oldham riots. Mr Miah was awarded the MBE in 2004.

Neither Mr Miah nor Collective Spirit replied to the Chronicle's requests for a comment.

In a statement published in The Guardian, the multi academy trust said it has used Mr Miah's company after other other firms either did not tender for the contracts or their rates were too expensive.

It added: "All relationships ceased with CCP as of August 31, 2015."