Schools will no longer be able to access a grant for supporting academy conversion if they are applying to join or set up a trust alone, in changes coming into effect from September.
A £25,000 support grant to help with the academy conversion process will be “paid only to schools approved to join or form a trust as part of a group of three or more schools”, an update to Department for Education guidance states.
It means schools converting to become single-academy trusts (SATs) or joining a big multi-academy trust (MAT) alone will not qualify for the cash from 1 September this year.
Potential spike in academy conversions
The three schools needed to qualify for the grant can include existing SATs and maintained schools.
However special and alternative provision schools can still receive the grant if they are converting as part of a single-school conversion process.
The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) has sought assurances from the DfE that it will have the capacity to manage a potential spike in academy conversions during the summer term by schools looking to convert before the grant funding rules change.
In an email to its members, it said: “The DfE has said this policy change from 1 September is intended to support a more strategic approach to schools joining trusts.
“However, it is essential that schools currently considering joining your trust, but not as part of a group of three or more schools, can still access the conversion grant this academic year.”
CST has also raised the issue of small schools joining trusts, it said: “We believe they should be treated in the same way that special and AP schools are being treated under this policy change.”
The change shows the DfE doesn’t want to be moving to a trust-run system “one school at a time”, Mark Blackman, director of education consultancy Leadership Together, told Tes.
He said: “If you think about the long-term ambition, which is for all schools to be academies, it would take forever if you did them one at a time.
“You have to do pretty much the same amount of work to bring one school in as you do to bring a small group in or to form a trust with a small group.”
Mr Blackman added that bringing in schools in groups to a trust may help bring capacity by allowing trusts to balance taking in schools that need support with ones that provide strength.
Academy support grant deadline
The grant has previously been available to schools wanting to become a SAT or join a MAT alone.
Schools wanting to convert and receive the grant under the current eligibility criteria before the new criteria comes in must register their interest by 26 April, submit the application by 7 June and have it approved by a regional director by 1 September.
A DfE spokesperson said it wants all schools to be part of a high-quality trust.
“We believe that the academies sector is now well-established to the extent we can take a more strategic approach to growing trusts,” the department added.
“We welcome that the average size of a trust is growing, as larger trusts are better placed to deliver sustained school improvement.”
Tes reported last year how DfE regional teams had set out goals for single or smaller academy trusts to merge or join larger MATs as part of a drive for consolidation in the trust system.
The number of SATs in the country has been declining - and the rate of this decline has been speeding up over recent years.
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