Camden New Journal - News: Charity lobbied for academy

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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 26 April 2007

Charity lobbied for academy

Organisation financed through a hedge fund offers to support new school

A HEDGE fund-based charity has made a direct approach to education chiefs offering to sponsor a new city academy in Camden, the New Journal has learned.
Private correspondence shows how Ark, which stands for Absolute Return for Kids, wrote to Camden Council asking for the chance to take control of the new secondary school currently planned for Swiss Cottage.
Unions said this week it would be “a backward step” if a charity with links to the City was allowed to get involved in running a school.
But the New Journal can reveal how Ark’s managing director Lucy Heller has already met with Town Hall leader Keith Moffitt over the proposal.
She said in a confidential follow-up letter: “I wanted to underline Ark’s strong interest in working with Camden to establish an academy in the borough.
“I know you’re at a relatively early stage in your deliberations but we have the resources available (including funding) and would be ready to make a firm commitment very quickly, if and when you go ahead.”
The note was released to the New Journal on Thursday after enquiries under the Freedom of Information Act.
Ms Heller made the approach in December and went on to invite senior Liberal Democrats to visit the Burlington Danes Academy, a city academy run by Ark in Hammersmith.
She said it would be possible to meet the governing body of the academy and to ask questions about Ark’s other schools.
Ark is the brainchild of the wealthy French financier Arpad Busson and is funded in part with cash from hedge funds and donations from fund-raising galas and auctions.
Critics say there is no evidence that the charity can operate better schools than local authorities.
Ark has has been one of the leading movers since the government introduced academies and has been targeting sites across London.
Last week it jumped into a project in Brent after an initial sponsor withdrew.
The charity, however, dropped its plans to sponsor a school in Islington two years ago amid protests from parents and a demonstration at its West End offices.
There is similar resistance in Camden.
Education chiefs have insisted they must consider the use of academies as part of their bid for government funding needed to open a new school, provisionally mapped out for Adelaide Road.
The Town Hall has only released the names of University College London and the Church of England as potential sponsors in Camden.
Privately, Ark directors are understood to be switching their efforts to other areas of London after getting an apparent steer from Camden that UCL were in pole position. The charity has, however, made it clear that it would still be interested in getting involved in future projects in the borough.
In his response to Ms Heller, Cllr Moffitt said he would take her letter as a formal approach. He added that he had held meetings with Lord Andrew Adonis, the schools minister widely regarded as the architect of the government’s academies programme.
One theory among anti-academies campaigners is that a backstage deal is being carved out in secret before any announcement is made, limiting the opportunity for a parent protest.
Kevin Courtney, secretary of the Unison trade union, said: “We don’t like Ark. It is the charity arm of a hedge fund.
“A hedge fund would make a better contribution to education by paying their taxes rather than avoiding them by putting their money in off-shore tax havens.”

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