The Department for Education will end its grant scheme for schools choosing to become an academy at the end of this year and has “no plans” to continue to run its trust capacity fund.
Trusts waiting to hear about expansion funding bids for this summer’s funding round have also been told no cash will be handed out.
It comes as the new Labour government seeks to rationalise the dual school system in England.
Its upcoming children’s wellbeing bill will seek to bring the two parts of the sector closer together, requiring academies to follow the national curriculum and cooperate with councils on admissions and pupil place planning.
The Confederation of School Trusts said the decisions would make it “much more difficult” for trusts to support maintained schools that need help, and leave smaller schools “very vulnerable”.
At present, schools voluntarily converting to academies can get “up to £25,000 to spend on the process of converting to an academy”.
But a government guidance update issued today states that the grant “will end on January 1 2025”.
‘No plans’ for future TCAF rounds
The trust capacity fund provides cash to help multi-academy trusts develop their capacity and take on underperforming schools, particularly in so-called education investment areas.
The latest iteration of scheme granted trusts up to £750,000 to take on at least five schools in underperforming areas.
But in communications with trusts, seen by Schools Week, the DfE said there were “currently no plans to introduce future rounds” of TCAF, and that it had decided not to award funding to any bidders in window 4.
“Across the public sector there have been tough decisions to take on how money is spent to achieve the best value for taxpayers. The decision has been made not to award funding to window 4 applicants.
“There are currently no plans to introduce future rounds of the trust capacity fund. We appreciate the effort that went into these applications and understand that this will be disappointing.”
The DfE went on to say that it valued “the vital role academy trusts play in our school system”.
“We want to work with you to ensure the collaboration and leadership that high quality trusts bring to the system helps to deliver exceptional results for children and young people, including those in disadvantaged areas.”
‘Incredibly disappointed’
Leora Cruddas, the CST’s chief executive, said TCAF “has been very successful in enabling trusts to support maintained schools that need help, especially in areas with a history of poor education outcomes”.
“That will become much more difficult to do now. Trust leaders will be especially angry that ministers have scrapped this summer’s funding round; trusts spent considerable time and effort creating bids and have been waiting for a decision on for four months.
“School trusts have a wealth of experience in school improvement but sharing that effectively takes time and money, and we need to make sure that the wider school sector doesn’t suffer from this decision.”
She added that the CST was “incredibly disappointed” at the decision to withdraw the conversion grant.
“Ending this grant will leave, in particular, smaller primary schools very vulnerable and without the financial and educational sustainability that comes from being part of a trust. It is a short-sighted decision that will weaken the school system.”
Taken together, the two decisions would have “clear consequences for the strength and sustainability of our school system”.
“This is not a neutral decision and will impact the capacity of the system to keep improving.”
