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The new chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) wants to build the academy sector’s “trust”, with more focus on prevention and partnership to tackle sector fears of the watchdog.

David Withey, who joined the agency three months ago, said in a speech to sector leaders that the ESFA needed to make sure it doesn’t “jump to punitive measures too quickly”.

But he suggested recent developments on school funding had underlined the value of having a regulator with a “laser-like focus on financial management”.

Speaking at the Schools and Academies Show in Birmingham, Withey set out how he had begun trying to encourage a “shift of perception” of the body, however.

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