A troubled academy chain that has handed over all 21 of its academies because of a lack of capacity to improve them had a cash balance of £2m at the end of the last school year, its latest accounts show.

Wakefield City Academies Trust (WCAT) has now passed on responsibility for its 21 academies to other sponsors.

The accounts, for the year ending 31 August 2018, show WCAT had reserves of £0.7 million and a cash balance of £2.054 million.

The trust says it expects to still have cash reserves when it is wound up.

During 2017-18, a total of 18 WCAT academies were rebrokered and since the end of August last year, its three remaining schools - Balby Carr Academy and Carr Lodge Academy in Doncaster and Mexborough Academy in South Yorkshire - have also been moved to new sponsors.

The trust said that any surplus at the point of it winding up would be used for the benefit of students.

There was controversy surrounding the way in which WCAT moved money from schools to a central account before it was announced it would be wound up.

Controversial multi-academy trust

However, it has since emerged that the trust was advised to pool its funds by the Department for Education.

The accounts also show that during 2017-18 WCAT spent £162,184 with Diverse Academies Learning Partnership - the company that employed WCAT’s former interim chief executive, Chris Pickering.

WCAT purchased services including the interim chief executive officer, HR support and educational support

The accounts also say that Mr Pickering was paid between £120,000 and £130,000.

A spokesperson for Wakefield City Academies Trust said: “The trustees have been committed to ensuring WCAT is wound up solvently and we are pleased the latest accounts reflect this objective remains on course to be fulfilled.

“It has been a difficult period for the trust and its staff but we are pleased the transition of our academies to new sponsors has run smoothly, with no disruption to children’s education.

“We are now working to ensure the solvent winding-up of WCAT within a reasonable timeframe.

“Provisions have been made within the accounts in respect of staffing and legal costs associated with winding up the trust’s activities.

“Any surplus would be used for the benefit of the students under the charitable obligations of the trust.”

WCAT is one of the most high-profile failures of the academies programme.

It had been chosen by the government in 2015 to receive extra funding to allow it to take on more schools in the North of England.

However, just over a year later, a leaked draft report revealed that there had been “extreme concern” in the government over the way the academy chain was run.

An investigation in the summer of 2016, concluded that WCAT - which ran 21 primaries and secondaries across Yorkshire - had been put in an “extremely vulnerable position as a result of inadequate governance, leadership and overall financial management”.

The draft report, which was seen by Tes in 2016, said that a “lack of openness and transparency” about the removal of trustees from the board raised questions about whether decisions had been taken in the best interest of the trust.

Tes has also revealed concerns about problems in the leadership, culture, education and finances cited in another confidential report, written by its former interim chief executive, Mr Pickering.