Funding for academy trusts to increase their capacity has been cut, Tes understands - and trust leaders warn that the decision will have “consequences for the strength and sustainability” of the school system.
Those who submitted bids for the latest round of the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) have been told that no money will be awarded.
There are “no plans to introduce” further rounds of TCaF, according to an email from the Department for Education to trusts that had applied.
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), said it would “become much more difficult” for trusts to support maintained schools that need help without the funding.
This comes just after chancellor Rachel Reeves announced her Budget, which included a £2.3 billion boost in core funding for schools.
Trusts had been waiting to hear back on window four of funding for TCaF 2023-25.
‘Tough decisions’ on public sector money
The email this morning said that there had been “tough decisions” to make on how public sector money is spent.
“We appreciate the effort that went into these applications and understand that this will be disappointing,” it added.
Warren Carratt, CEO of Nexus Multi-Academy Trust, who had applied for TCaF, said: “Clearly, a decision has been taken to use this week’s Budget as a smokescreen to hide what is a political choice made months ago, during which time trusts have been left to hang on in false hope, without any communication whatsoever.”
Ms Cruddas said: “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 for four months.”
She added: “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.”
Meanwhile, new guidance for the academy conversion support grant, which gives money to spend on the conversion process, states that this grant will end on 1 January 2025.
Ms Cruddas said that CST is “incredibly disappointed” by this decision. The news about the two grants has “clear consequences for the strength and sustainability of our school system”.
She added: “This is not a neutral decision and will impact the capacity of the system to keep improving.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the government must explain how it will provide support to struggling schools without this funding.
He added that the question of how support is provided to struggling schools is “crucial to the future success of the education system” and the decision must “not turn out to be a false economy”.
‘Real difficulties’ for school budgets
Stuart Lock, CEO of Advantage Schools, whose trust had submitted a bid for TCaF after a period of growth, said: “Following the election and the review of spending, it is understandable that the government might want to redirect that spending to other priorities.
“It does cause us real difficulties that we had not anticipated when embarking on this project, and means that we have to look at our current budgets extremely carefully.”
Tes revealed that the DfE had said last week, as part of a freedom of information (FOI) response, that discussions were “still live” on funding for MAT growth.
MATs had been waiting for a decision on the latest round of TCaF and the Trust Establishment and Growth Fund (TEG), despite the grants having been due to start from the beginning of August.
Under the previous government, the DfE had committed “up to £86 million” for TCaF up to 2025.
Tes analysis of FOI data has previously found that allocations since 2022 already totalled nearly £82 million over the first three windows. The DfE had previously not been able to confirm how much money was left.
Mr Carratt added that having grant funding “pulled from the front line” feels “far removed from the commitment to work with the sector, for the sector”.
The government must explain how it will provide support to struggling schools without this funding, said Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.
He added that the question of how support is provided to struggling schools is “crucial to the future success of the education system” and that the decision must “not turn out to be a false economy”.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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