A school catering to Birmingham's expelled students reportedly charged the city council nearly twice the fee per pupil compared to a nearby prestigious public school. This revelation comes

despite an official audit indicating that the council had no way of verifying whether these students received any education during unsupervised "home study."

The school in question, Flexible Learning (FL), reportedly received over £4.5 million in payments from Birmingham City Council over three years, all without a written contract. This information was leaked to MailOnline and came from an internal audit marked 'official - sensitive.'

According to the audit, if places were unavailable at the City of Birmingham School (COBS), permanently excluded students were automatically assigned to FL, located in Hockley, central Birmingham. The auditors also raised concerns about the safeguarding of the approximately 50 children attending FL, noting that the council did not adequately monitor them.

The cost to Birmingham City Council amounted to an average of £30,000 per pupil annually, nearly double the fees charged by one of Birmingham's high-end public schools, King Edward's School, which charges around £17,000 per year.

FL billed the council £30,000 per pupil per year, a figure significantly higher than the average fees at public schools in Birmingham and considerably higher than the UK's average public school fees and state school spending.

To put this in perspective, the cost charged by Flexible Learning is approximately three-fifths the fees of Eton College, one of the UK's most expensive boarding schools, which charges around £50,000 per year.

A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies indicated that the average annual spend on British pupils in state schools was approximately £8,000, while fees at public schools in the UK averaged around £15,200 per year.

Notably, Flexible Learning School, led by Shamim Akhtar, experienced significant financial growth, with its bank balance increasing from less than £26,000 in 2018 to over £760,000 by 2021, as per Companies House records.

Birmingham City Council initiated an audit following a complaint from the school in 2020/21, asserting that over £1 million in invoices remained unpaid. Subsequently, these invoices were paid after verification.

The audit uncovered that Flexible Learning charged questionable rates of £25 per hour for unsupervised "home study," with no records of agreed prices on the council's end. The audit also highlighted the council's vulnerability to errors in the invoice-checking process due to the absence of records of placements.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the council was not adequately fulfilling its legal duty as a commissioner, as required by the Department for Education's guidelines. Council officers had set up an automatic system to allocate places at Flexible Learning when a pupil joined the City of Birmingham School waiting list.

The report concluded that Flexible Learning School decided on the required provision in collaboration with pupils' parents, as the council had not established a process for consultation or agreement. By September 2021, arrangements were made to transfer around 50 pupils from FL to COBS, leaving only two pupils attending the school.

These pupils received varying hours of education, a substantial portion of which was categorized as "unsupervised home study." Auditors recommended that the council investigate the legitimacy of claims on invoices for unsupervised home studies.

Furthermore, an invoice record from FL in May 2021 indicated that pupils received 20 hours of education per week, which included a significant amount of home study, falling short of the Department for Education's recommendation of 21 to 25 hours per week.

FL billed £75 per hour for a group of three pupils and £25 per hour for online tuition and home study. The report raised concerns about home study, particularly questioning its value for money without pupil tuition or supervision.

While a reconciliation process was initiated to determine whether pupils were receiving instruction during home study, a lack of data resulted in most invoices being paid.

Birmingham City Council stated, "The Exclusions Team no longer commissions any places with the Flexible Learning Group. It concluded a settlement agreement with Flexible Learning in resolution of a dispute which had arisen between the parties." Photo by David Stowell, Wikimedia commons.