In November, the DfE made headlines by announcing it would be ending both the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) and the academy conversion support grant (ACSG). In response, The Confederation of School Trusts, academy bodies, and trust executives made headlines by sharing concerns about the impact of the decision.
The sector now needs to fill another couple of holes in its capital funding bucket that were both supporting underperforming schools and those wanting to become part of a trust.
Read on for how the end of the schemes is expected to impact schools and trusts, plus considerations of why the DfE made the decision to pull these funding streams.
More uncertainty for the education sector
They are both ending, but there is a statement in the blog where we say that anyone waiting for the conversion grant has heard that they won’t be getting it. It has been conflated with the TCaF cancellation. To my knowledge, any conversion grants in flight will still be honoured.
Academy trusts were still waiting to hear if their latest TCaF bid had been successful when the DfE announced the scheme was to be pulled, with ‘no plans’ to keep it running. It’s slightly different for schools that’d applied – or were in the process of applying for – the ACSG. Applications will remain open until 20th December 2025, with successful ones still honoured. But like TCaF, there aren’t any plans to run this scheme in the future, so we’re heading into a new term that could be overshadowed by questions and uncertainty.
- Will schools with hopes to voluntary convert to an academy still be able to?
- What will happen to schools in education investment areas that are ready to become part of a trust?
- Will new funding schemes replace TCaF and/or ASCG?
We don’t have the answers, but we hope some light will be shed on how schools and trusts can move forward in the coming months. In the meantime, let’s go back to why the trust capacity fund and academy conversion support grant were set up in the first place, and how them ending might impact the sector in 2025.
TCaF: What it is
Only as recently as 2019, the DfE introduced the trust capacity fund. Its purpose was to support the growth of MATs and help them both develop and strengthen their capacity. The competitive grant was open to academy trusts and local authority-maintained schools (which were forming MATs).
The latest round – TCaF 2023-2025 – originally had five application windows. But it reduced this to four, citing a ‘very high’ number of funding applications being put forwards for windows one to three. The fourth and final window opened on 1st March this year, with submissions needing to be placed by 25th June 2024. Schools and trusts were due to find out if they’d successfully secured up to £750k of funding by August, which is when the grants were due to start. Funds would need to be spent on activities that would be completed by 31st March 2025.
How TCaF finishing will impact the sector
But with TCaF now ending this year, these organisations will not be awarded any funding. Of its decision, the DfE says it ‘appreciate[s] the effort that went into these applications’ and ‘understand[s] that this will be disappointing’. Tes reported that trust leaders have warned of the impact of the decision on the school system, saying it will bring ‘consequences for [its] strength and sustainability’. Time will tell how this will play out for the maintained schools that need (and hoped they’d receive) support from trusts in 2024 and 2025.
The academy conversion support grant
Similarly, schools that are voluntarily converting to academies can apply for funding up to £25k to support the process. But only until 1st January 2025! Schools now only have a matter of weeks to apply for the academy conversion support grant, the final deadline for which is the 20th of December. The DfE will consider applications in January and February of next year, but the scheme will not be starting up again.
Schools can use funds awarded from the academy conversion support grant for activities including:
- Rebranding costs
- Human resources advice
- Software licence transfer payments
Yet with the grant closing as 2025 starts, it’s feared that many schools (particularly smaller primaries) will be left in vulnerable financial positions. Belonging to a trust brings confidence around sustainable, long-term performance and growth – something many school leaders will now feel less certainty around.
The effects of the October Budget
With a relatively new government in place, it remains to be seen what sorts of reform we can expect to see across the education system – the end of these grants may well just be the start. It’s no secret that Labour’s spending review brought to light an annual overshoot in public spending of £22 billion, and it’s no secret that education (and other public sectors) is going to feel the pinch. Still, Labour’s October Budget promised £2.3 billion in core funding for schools, and the party’s shared its hopes to rationalise England’s school system.
Tough decisions are being made on where to prioritise government spending. Unfortunately for schools and trusts, this now means more months of uncertainty. But on a more positive note, it’s nothing our resilient sector hasn’t come up against – and overcome – before.
