A Sussex academy chain has been criticised by MPs for paying a parent company for services in a potential “conflict of interests”.

The Aurora Academies Trust, which runs four primary schools in Bexhill and Eastbourne, came under fire from the Government’s Education Select Committee in a report released yesterday.

As previously reported by The Argus, the trust pays about £100,000 a year to use a patented global curriculum owned by its American parent company.

The committee singled the trust out as one of those at risk of “potential or real” conflict of interest. The report said a number of academy schools are paying large sums of public money for services provided by trust board members and their companies. It said the system for regulating potential conflicts of interest was “too weak”.

The report also said “questionable practices” were being signed-off within the existing rules. The first example it used was Aurora, which runs King Offa Primary in Down Road, and Glenleigh Park Primary in Buxton Drive, both in Bexhill, and Oakwood Primary in Magnolia Drive, and Heron Park Primary in Dallington Road, both in Eastbourne.

The report said that under a licensing deal, the trust pays US parent company Mosaica Education about £100,000 a year to use its patented global curriculum – Paragon. Three Aurora directors, it said, have a direct or indirect interest in Mosaica Education. It concludes: “The curriculum has been criticised by Ofsted for lacking a local focus. All the four schools have been Ofsted inspected this year: two are ‘good’ and two are ‘requires improvement’.”

Tim McCarthy, CEO of Aurora, told The Argus the curriculum licence is on an “at-cost basis” in accordance with an agreement between the trust, Mosaica and the Department for Education.

He added: “Our schools have recently been inspected by Ofsted and two, which were in the bottom 200 schools nationally two years ago, have now been rated as good. The other two have significantly improved.

“We reject any suggestion that licensing that curriculum is tantamount to making payments to board members or is otherwise inappropriate.

“Our partnership with our sponsor, together with the hard work of pupils and staff, has been instrumental in the turnaround of these schools.”

The Select Committee report concluded that more had to be done to ensure conflicts of interests were checked.