Michael Gove's flagship policy to expand the academies programme rapidly was under fire from the National Audit Office.  The spending watchdog said the policy riskes delivering poor value for money for the taxpayers especially since a quarter of existing academies already need extra financial help.

The recent report from the NAO does acknowledge the role of academies improving standards, however this improvement is dependent upon the students background.  According to the report, children from poorer backgrounds tend to do better in state schools rather than academies.

Academies are spending signficantly more money per pupil, and the Young People's Learning Agency is expected to pay £8.5 million to bail 10 academies out, while one in 20 academies are projecting budget deficit.

""The expansion of the programme increases the scale of risks to value for money - particularly in the areas of financial stability, governance and management capacity," the NAO said.

"With greater numbers of academies opening in recent years, the department's capacity to administer and monitor the programme has been stretched particularly, as funding is administered on an individual basis."

The report by the NAO also points out that current performance of academies cannot be used to extrapolate the academy model's performance level when applied over a wide range of schools.  The report suggests that specific performance indicators should be identified to measure how well the new schools perform.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "Many of the academies established so far are performing impressively in delivering the intended improvements.

"It cannot be assumed, however, that academies' performance to date is an accurate predictor of how the model will perform when generalised more widely."

The Education Secretary Michael Gove defended the coalition government's flagship education policy arguing that the NAO report does highlight improved performances of academies.

"We have already taken prompt action on the NAO recommendations, as we strive to strengthen the programme even further,"he said.

"The academies programme is helping children from all backgrounds to get a better education, that is why we are allowing more schools to become academies, and giving real power and autonomy back to schools and teachers."

The new Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons, Margaret Hodge said:  "Where schools are given more freedom, we need to know they are using it well.

"We will want to be assured that, as the programme is expanded, the controls to provide sound financial management and good governance are firmly in place."

"The department faces major challenges as it takes over from local government the responsibility for directly funding many more schools."

"We will want to know that it has the capacity to meet these challenges."