School boss may have spent funds on family firms

Reporter Sasha Hinde also filmed the school’s head of operations, Paul Hamill, claiming it was "the cash cow" for Mr Saverimutto’s other businesses interests.

Panorama – which has seen leaked invoices, bank statements, details of rent payments and lease agreements – asked Nicholas Parton, head of forensic accounting at Opus Pear Tree, to examine the school’s finances.

He said: "From the financial information we have seen, it appears that local authority funding intended to benefit the pupils of the school has been used to finance a gym and/or coffee business operated by Mr Saverimutto and his family."

Despite the amount of public money going into Life Wirral, undercover filming by Panorama revealed concerns about a lack of funding for the school.

Parts of the building were in a poor condition and often the internet did not work, which meant pupils were sometimes unable to complete tasks set.

One senior member of staff joked about the poor quality of the school's sensory room, saying: "We’ve got a doll's head on top of a freezer, a bean bag, and a lava lamp. This is the sensory room?"

The gym, in Claughton, Wirral, was used by Life Wirral pupils after the school opened in 2021.

By the summer term of 2024, however, only four of its 19 students were using it.

ASAV Fitness, owned by members of Mr Saverimutto's family, also ran classes for women in the gym, selling memberships for £50 a month.

Mr Saverimutto owned and ran SHE (Sports, Health and Education) C.I.C., a community interest company limited by guarantee, meaning shareholders cannot pay themselves dividends.

Rent for the gym was paid by SHE, which also received fees paid by Wirral Council to place pupils at Life School.

Between March 2022 and June 2024, SHE spent £76,000 on rental payments to a private landlord for the premises used by the gym.

Invoices and bank statements also reveal that SHE spent at least £60,000 on extending the gym.

"The Engine Room" opened in 2023 and included four state-of-the-art treadmills.

Catherine Hardinge, a partner at Price Bailey chartered accountants, is a specialist in CIC compliance.

She said some of the rules governing CICs may have been broken.

ASAV Fitness was incorporated in July 2019 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of SHE in July 2023. Kiwi Beverages was incorporated in January 2024 when it also became a wholly owned subsidiary of SHE.

Ms Hardinge said because CICs had an "asset lock" that prevents the company being used for private gain, "if assets were transferred from SHE and to ASAV Fitness, then they should have been required to pay a fair market rate for them".

She said ASAV Fitness appeared to be an ordinary trading businesses and could not see anything that indicated they were running for the benefit of the community.

A DfE spokesman said Panorama had "exposed how these young people were let down by those who should have been keeping them safe".

The spokesman added: "As a new government, we are also concerned that the rules on who can run schools are too loose, particularly special schools for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

"We want to break down barriers to opportunity for children with [Special Educational Needs and Disabilities] and are looking at further action to ensure that situations like this do not happen again."

Additional reporting by Sasha Hinde