One of Liverpool’s most famous schools is at a breaking point

The Post has uncovered worrying details of alleged financial mismanagement and ‘shocking’ decision-making at LIPA MAT

Dear readers — earlier this year, teachers at LIPA Sixth Form announced they would be going on strike over poor conditions, safety concerns and what they said were “unmanageable” workloads. For today’s story, Abi spoke with multiple sources at LIPA MAT — the collective made up of the sixth form, high school and primary — who said the situation behind the scenes is even more dire.

Staff have raised concerns about a former headteacher’s management and spending, including an ongoing business deal with a company that had sponsored his own daughter on her rugby team. Additionally, a community start-up that had been offering music lessons to students recently stopped providing services to LIPA MAT, alleging they owe them £20,000.

LIPA MAT denies these allegations, as well as others outlined in the following story. But people close to the schools have told us they’re worried the storied institutions “will go bankrupt”. So what, exactly, is plaguing LIPA MAT, and can they turn this sorry state of affairs around? 

Editor’s note: As usual with our Friday stories, this piece is paywalled halfway through. It takes extensive research and hours on the phone with sources to write pieces like this one, and the support of our paying members is what allows us to dedicate the time needed to break big stories. If you’re not a member yet, why not sign up today? It costs just £7 a month to become a paid subscriber. You’ll be supporting us on our mission to give Merseyside the kind of in-depth, well-researched journalism it deserves, and you’ll also get full access to all our past and upcoming stories.

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Your Post briefing

Single bus fares will remain at £2 across the city region, metro mayor Steve Rotheram has confirmed, saying that saving the cap represented “the power of devolution”. The cap was introduced by the previous Conservative government to help tackle the cost of living crisis, but new Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a price hike to £3 in her first budget. Rotheram is extending the £2 cap until September 2025, part of a plan to "make the Liverpool city region net zero carbon by 2035".

To celebrate Knowsley’s 50th birthday as a borough, the council will be staging a 17-day music festival as part of a year-long programme of events. The Knowsley Music Festival opens this Friday with a performance from Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! at Prescot’s Shakespeare North Playhouse, one of 26 acts playing across 15 venues. Another staple of Liverpool’s musical second-wave, Deaf School, will be performing at Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park on 16th November.

A public inquiry into Lucy Letby’s crimes has heard she offered “tips” on how to get away with murder. The Thirlwall Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard Letby and union rep Hayley Griffiths discussing the American TV drama How to Get Away with Murder in early 2017 via WhatsApp. The inquiry heard Ms Griffiths told Letby: "I’m currently watching a programme called how to get away with murder. I’m learning some good tips." Letby replied: "I could have given you some tips x” and later “I can think of two people you could practice on and will help you cover it up x”. Ms Griffiths and Ms Letby became friends when the nurse was removed from the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit in 2016 and given office duties after concerns were raised that she might have been harming babies. Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven others, for which she is serving 15 life sentences. 

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By Abi Whistance

Back in 2021, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) announced they would be opening a high school to accompany their existing educational facilities. The addition was a big deal; LIPA’s founding principal Mark Featherstone-Witty told the Echo at the time: “A dream I had 28 years ago has come true: a symbiotic learning journey from 4 to 16 and even beyond.”

Founded by Paul McCartney and opened in 1996, LIPA has long been a staple of the city’s cultural heritage, training generations of creatives in theatre and music. Alumni have included Art Attack’s Neil Buchanan and The Wombats frontman Matthew Murphy. While it started out as a university, LIPA expanded over the years to include a sixth form and primary school before adding a new high school.

That expansion hasn’t gone as smoothly as Featherstone-Witty once dreamed. It has been a remarkably turbulent time for LIPA over the past few months, with an OFSTED report in March downgrading its new high school and primary school to “Requires Improvement”, noting that students “do not feel safe”. Two months later, the National Education Union announced that teachers at its sixth form would be going on strike, telling the BBC they had been left to “dance around buckets” due to leaky roofs and mouldy carpets. To make matters worse, its August 2023 accounts show the multi-academy trust (MAT) the school is a part of — which includes the primary school, high school and sixth form — made a loss of around £700,000 from its educational operations.

How has such a prestigious institution ended up in dire straits? The Post has seen evidence and spoken to sources who allege financial mismanagement at the primary and high school, largely due to decisions made by its former Headteacher and Chief Accounting Officer, Greg Parker. Between 2021 and the summer of 2024, Parker signed a series of business contracts to provide services to the primary, high school and sixth form which led the institutions — as one source put it — to “the verge of bankruptcy”.

An illustration by Jake Greenhalgh

One ongoing contract was with a firm that sponsored Parker’s daughter on her rugby team. That same firm is directed by a former headteacher who’d previously been banned from teaching due to repeated dishonesty and abusing her position of power.

Meanwhile, a company named SoMi Music Academy had until recently been offering music lessons to students, but says it is no longer able to do so due to a financial dispute over thousands of pounds worth of unpaid fees.

“Our members have been shouting from the rooftops that the conditions in LIPA MAT schools are a health and safety hazard to both staff and students,” Bora Oktas, the regional officer of the National Education Union, told The Post. “They are tired of pointing out deficiencies, lack of resources, and concerns about the lack of transparency.”

In response to these allegations, Parker told The Post that all the contracts he signed were procured using a “transparent competitive tendering exercise”. He added he had worked as a headteacher for 10 years prior to leaving LIPA, and that “managing finances [was] intrinsic to the role”. A spokesperson for LIPA MAT said it publishes its audited accounts annually and these are publicly available, but “it does not comment on its finances in the interim”.

However, the evidence we’ve seen and testimonies we’ve heard raise questions over LIPA MAT’s financial standing, and the uncertain future of its long-dreamed-of high school.