A school which says it struggled to afford heating will have to disclose how much it paid a law firm for its headmaster’s £500,000 lawsuit against two parents.
Kevin Flanagan, headteacher of Pensby High School in Wirral, claimed damages of £20,000 from Keith and Stephanie Critchley for harassment. In September last year, the claimant’s costs of the entire proceedings were forecast to be approximately £545,000.
The school confirmed it was funding the action, but not whether that was in part or full. It stated that any costs paid would be covered by self-generated income and not sourced from public funds. Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council revealed in January that £210.576.79 was paid to transpennine firm Brabners from the school’s account.
James Griffiths made a freedom of information request to the school’s governing body to ask for the total amount of the legal costs and the sources of the funding, a request which was refused. Revelation of the amount would impact the headteacher and the sources of funds were not available, the governing body said.
In the first-tier tribunal, Griffiths argued that the sources of the funds must have been disclosed in detail to Brabners to meet the firm’s due diligence obligation under anti-money laundering regulations.
But Judge Sophie Buckley found the school did not hold records of which source of funding is being used for a particular item of expenditure. ‘We have no reason to doubt that the solicitors have complied with their obligations under money laundering regulations’, the judge added.
But Buckley ruled the total figure of costs should be provided to Griffiths. The judge referred to a letter from September 2022 in which the school warned parents it could not meet rapid rises in gas and electricity costs from the current school budget and had to find efficiencies. The letter concluded by saying that it would delay putting the heating on for as long as possible and then would keep it to 19 degrees.
Buckley ruled the letter illustrated the importance of transparency around ‘a significant item of expenditure which is not part of the usual annual expenditure for a school’.
Brabners told the Gazette that its costs were paid from funds generated by the charitable trust which oversees the school, rather than its day-to-day budget.
