A charity behind plans for a form of 'free schools' in Scotland is under the spotlight over its finances.
The Hometown Foundation, bankrolled by a company owned by tycoon Robert Durward, has recorded debts spanning the last four financial years.
In England, free schools are not under the control of local authorities and receive their funding directly from government.
However, in Scotland councils are still the primary mechanism for delivering education north of the border.
The UK Government reforms have never been endorsed by the SNP administration, but First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is believed to favour a rethink of the role councils play in schools.
The Foundation, funded by a quarry company owned by Durward, was set up to help deliver a new town in South Lanarkshire based on cooperative principles.
The plan was rejected by local councillors in 2014 and the charity has diverted its energy into other projects.
One of its ideas is to help develop a new model of state-funded but autonomous schools that would not be run by councils.
The charity last year advised St Joseph's Primary in Milngavie, which is being shut, on a business case to the Scottish Government for funding.
The Al-Qalam private Muslim school, as well as a former Steiner school in Glasgow, have benefited from the same assistance.
The Foundation's Bill Nicol described the model to an online news website last year: "Forget free schools and all the associated baggage. What we are looking at is state funded autonomous schools."
However, an examination of the Lanark-based Foundation’s accounts reveals it has had “net liabilities” since 2012, the financial term used when current debts exceed the funds available to cover them.
In the year up to January 31 2015, the Foundation received £175,000 in pledged donations and a £440,000 interest free loan from Durward’s Cloburn Quarry Company Ltd.
Despite the company’s largesse, the Foundation had net liabilities of £213,413 in the same year.
The figure in 2014 was £268,857, while in the previous year it stood at £145,927. In 2012, the Foundation recorded total liabilities of £101,968.
The Charity Commission, which regulates the sector, published a report in 2014 on charities that had net liabilities.
The watchdog explained: “We chose this area because of the perceived risk that such charities may not be able to meet their debts when they fall due and therefore could be facing insolvency.”
Durward has also dipped his toes into political waters in the past.
In 2003, he bankrolled a new party, the right-wing People’s Alliance, with around £110,000 in personal donations and £540,000 from Coburn Quarry.
However, the venture failed to attract significant support from the public.
Between 2003 and 2010, Coburn also donated around £1million to the New Party, which also failed to make its mark. Both organisations are marked as “de-registered” by the Electoral Commission.
Durward was also involved in the Scientific Alliance, which has challenged conventional environmental thinking.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Nicol said: “They [the Scottish Government] say publicly that they are open to looking at different ways of delivering education. This would be delivering education by diverse means. This idea that one-size-fits-all doesn’t appear to be the case.”
He added: “We are still waiting for feedback on the three business cases. We hope the feedback on the first one should be quite soon.”
Asked about the Foundation’s finances, Nicol said the charity’s “net liabilities” were “not a matter for concern”.
He added: “We met with OSCR [the charity regulator in Scotland] at the start re our charitable objectives, have lodged accounts on an annual basis and, to my knowledge, OSCR has never raised any concerns.”
However, a spokesperson for the EIS, the country’s largest teaching union, said: "The EIS has a clear view that Hometown Foundation has been pursuing a politically motivated agenda to attack and undermine local authority control of public sector education, whilst ostensibly championing the rights of parents. It would be illustrative to know who funds these types of organisations."
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