Cash awarded in the final round of a now-axed fund to help trusts grow their capacity fell nearly £18 million short of bids.
Window 3 of the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) was the last time this funding was handed out to multi-academy trusts (MATs) after the Labour government made the decision to scrap it in November.
The Department for Education today published data on the MATs that successfully bid for window 3 of the TCaF, revealing that while £30 million was applied for, just £12 million was awarded from a total of 89 bids.
Tes previously revealed in June, via a freedom of information (FOI) request, that trusts applying for TCaF were increasingly likely to see shortfalls in money awarded.
End of the Trust Capacity Fund
The average gap between the amount of TCaF money that trusts bid for and what they got grew by 183 per cent between 2022-23 and window 3 of the 2023-25 funding. In the final round trusts got, on average, just 40 per cent of the money they applied for.
This meant the average shortfall across 89 bids was £201,972.
Guidance on TCaF set out that awards would likely be capped below the amount in a trust’s application “where there are DfE budget constraints”.
In September the DfE was urged to clarify how much was left of the original £86 million allocated for TCaF, as trusts waited for months for the outcome of their bids for window 4 of the funding.
Then those trusts were told on 1 November that no money would be awarded for the planned window 4 and there were no plans for future rounds of TCaF or the Trust Establishment and Growth Fund (TEG).
Steve Rollett, deputy chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said the size of the requests for funding showed why the TCaF was so important - and why the organisation and its members were “so disappointed that the fund was closed prematurely”.
“The final figures show the depth of need, not just in education improvement areas but more widely across the country, with trusts and schools keen to work together to improve education for children,” he said.
“We must ensure this can continue to happen so that pupils don’t miss out.”
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