Part 4: Few warnings ahead of the Dartington storm

With the dramatic restructuring at Dartington Hall Trust in full swing, the debate has continued as to just why such big changes were necessary.

As recently as early 2023 – just before Lord David Triesman took over as the trust’s chair – there were few public signs that the organisation was close to catastrophe. Many observers were taken aback when Triesman declared in mid-2023 that the trust was heading towards financial meltdown, a view which led to a dramatic drive to cut costs with a big reduction in jobs.

Differing views

But an analysis of public announcements by the trust – plus the views of people closely acquainted with Dartington’s operations – provides some explanation of why different people came up with such alternative assessments of the charity’s finances.

a local and global treasure

One person highly knowledgeable about the trust’s activities prior to 2023 said: “I still cannot make sense of David Triesman’s conclusion that the trust was in a dire state. [In 2022] it was starting to make money. We felt [prior to 2023] that a recovery was on the way.”

Supporting this view is another Dartington Hall Trust insider. “Our [the trust’s] accountants had signed off the last set of accounts (for the year to March 2022) and they had always been quite strict. Yes, we had been nervous about the finances. But we had put in place a slow turnround.”

Dartington’s announcement in December 2022 of Triesman’s appointment showed no sign of gathering gloom. The Labour peer’s “outstanding career in politics, finance, education, publishing and fine art and his unwavering commitment to public service equip him singularly well to lead the Dartington Trust into our next 100 years,” the trust said.

In comments at the time, Triesman was similarly positive, describing Dartington as “a local and global treasure” which had made a “legendary” contribution to a “just and sustainable” future.

The trust’s last published annual report and accounts –– for the year to  August 31 2022  – followed the same line. The report was compiled in late 2022 and made public in May last year. A new set of accounts for 2022/23 is expected to be published within weeks.
The accounts showed a £4.6m deficit on revenues of just under £15m, together with a big reduction in cash over the year – hardly a robust situation. Nonetheless the trustees said in the report that they “have a reasonable expectation that the trust has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future”.

Auditing no issues

The Dartington Hall Trust’s auditor – the Plymouth office of accountants Bishop Fleming – also failed to register alarm.  It wrote in the report: “We have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve. months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.”

We have set the trust on a renewed path

Greg Parston – the previous trust chair, whose departure paved the way for Triesman – also gave no hint of imminent financial disaster when he penned an upbeat farewell message in the 2021/22 report. “We have set the trust on a renewed path of ‘learning by doing’ in ecology, the arts and social Justice,” Parston wrote. “A future of sustainability and social fairness Is now there to be made.”

Recovery?

But beneath the surface there were signs of problems. In the five years to end of August 2022, Dartington’s accounts have shown a cumulative deficit of £15m, excluding a one-off £3.1m gain one year linked to a rise in investment income. In the years prior to Triesman’s arrival the trust had put in train low-key recovery plans, based around cost cuts and new ideas to boost income.

The land sell -off

But a bigger part of the survival effort had been more controversial: plugging the gap in finances through selling off land and other assets. The approach has led to cash windfalls for the trust totalling £18m over the four years to August 2022. The policy of relying on asset sales has sparked concern among some observers.

One such critic – with close knowledge of the trust’s inner workings over a long period – said Dartington had become used to spending too much money and living beyond its means. The long-term policy of asset sales was unsustainable, according to this view.  Referring to the establishment of Dartington in its modern form by the benefactors Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in the 1920s, the person said: “Dartington was started as a grand experiment in community rejuvenation, backed by unlimited sources of income, and the philosophy has – unfortunately = lived on.” They continued, “The moment the trustees walk through the [Dartington] archway they start to feel they are immune from the normal constraints of modern society. They behave like philanthropists, even when they are not.”

Reduced reliance on land sale

It is a line Robert Fedder, the trust’s interim chief executive since last summer, would appear to sympathise with. Fedder said he disliked the approach of relying on asset sales, and Dartington would no longer rely on this. He also dismissed any notion that Dartington’s financial position had been improving before Triesman’s arrival  “The previous recovery plan [in place in 2021/22 ] was completely unrealistic,” Fedder said. Last summer – before the new recovery plans took effect – the trust was  just “weeks away” from bankruptcy, Fedder has said.  Supporting this gloomy view is that, according to one person close to him, Triesman told associates that soon after his appointment as chair he had  “locked himself into a room” to scrutinise an alternative set of accounts for the trust. While Triesman didn’t explain who gave him these accounts, he said they were different to the numbers available to the public in the 2021/22 official report, and gave him a more accurate picture of the trust’s underlying financial health. According to this account, Triesman concluded from this that the charity was in much weaker financial position than had been thought, and that urgent action was needed.

Another person with inside knowledge of Dartington Hall Trust substantiated this view. The person said that one of the trustees – financial expert Christopher Maw – had used his expertise to draw up a set of figures for the trust which again pointed to a much bleaker situation than the audited numbers showed. Maw, Bishop Fleming and Triesman did not respond to requests to comment.

inadequate for gaining a true picture…

Multiple accounts?

Having two sets of financial numbers for the same organisation might seem odd. Most people would think the point of having auditors such as Bishop Fleming is to come up with a single set of accurate figures that outsiders can rely on. But external auditors generally have limited abilities to delve too deeply into figures provided by an organisation’s own finance department.
In the case of Dartington, it operates a range of activities including retail, arts events, renting out land and buildings plus stewarding a large area of land and organizing maintenance. The disparate threads to Dartington have – according to some observers – always made it difficult for outsiders – including auditors – to form a proper view of its finances especially as Dartington’s organisation’s financial control systems have generally been regarded as weak.

New Blood

When Philip Owen was appointed as Dartington Hall Trusts’s interim finance director in late 2023, he was the sixth person to have had this role (or equivalent) since 2019. It is unusual for any organisation to run through such senior people so quickly. It paints a picture – at least to the outside world – of an organisation that for some time has had a less than robust grip on its finances.
Fedder said that before Triesman took over as chair Dartington’s “quality of management information” was “inadequate for gaining a true picture of our financial state as we determined what needed doing”.

Fedder added that before 2023: “Virtually every activity at Dartington was losing money when the full true costs were considered.  A much closer eye needed to be kept on cash going forward.”
The trust had now, he said, instituted more rigorous financial management, based on monitoring cash and bank transactions. “Generating capital receipts is not a sustainable way to fund our activities.”  Fedder’s latest view is that the 2023 recovery plan – with much of this based on putting existing staff on new contracts to promote “flexible working” at different times – seems to be working.

“We think by the end of the year we should be breaking even,” he said.

The Full Report :

Part 1: “Conflict of interest” claim over pay deal adds to Dartington strains

Part 2: Former employee who quit “made an example of”, says resignation statement  

Part 3: Adviser’s contacts helped fill management vacuum

Part 5: Discord over music festivals after joint-venture plans founder

Part 6: Summer school falling-out led to trustee resignations