An under-pressure academy trust will close and transfer all its schools to alternative chains after fall-out from a “GAG pooling” controversy.
Staff at five University of Brighton Academies Trust (UoBAT) schools went on strike last year over the group’s financial model.
The issue landed in Parliament before Christmas as schools minister Catherine McKinnell confirmed UoBAT was “committed to ending” the policy.
Schools Week had revealed one of the trust’s academies had about 20 per cent of its cash retained centrally, while another had 17 per cent held back.
But today bosses announced they have “informed the Department for Education of their desire to seek to transfer the academies… to other academy trusts”.
“The trustees are committed to improving the outcomes for all young people at every stage of their education and view this significant step as the best way for this to be achieved,” they added.
In all, UoBAT runs 14 academies. The chain stressed it will work with DfE “over the months that come to seek the right trusts for academies to join, and to give stability and continuity to all our stakeholders through the time of change”.
Trusts have two methods to fund central services. Most top slice a percentage from their schools’ budgets.
But a growing number are instead pooling their general annual grant (GAG) first, before deciding how much should be allocated to academies based on their own formula, which is not made public.
A UoBAT spokesperson said in December that it would move to a top-slice model to “support greater transparency”, after “recognising this is a request from its schools”.
Hilary Goldsmith, a school business leader, previously argued the case should act as a warning to the sector.
“There should be real, genuine transparency [between staff and MATs] about what GAG pooling is for, why and how it leads to school improvement … [so] staff fully understand the value and agree with the numbers,” she explained.
