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Written question asked by Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative) on Friday, 12 April 2024, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 16 April 2024. It was answered by Damian Hinds (Conservative) on Thursday, 25 April 2024 on behalf of the Department for Education.

Academies: Finance

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that academy trusts publish details of (a) how their schools' annual grants are pooled and (b) (i) how and (ii) for what purposes funding is allocated to each school.

Answer

A trust with multiple academies can pool the general annual grant (GAG) to form one central fund. The ability to pool funding gives trusts the ability to direct funds to meet improvement priorities and running costs across its schools and deliver a successful financial operating model for their trust. The Academy Trust Handbook (ATH) requires that if a trust decides to pool their GAG, then it must consider the funding needs and allocations of each constituent academy.

The department requires a high level of accountability and transparency of academy trusts. Academy trusts’ status as companies, charities and public sector bodies, means they have a rigorous tri-partite framework and are held up to greater scrutiny. Trusts must account properly for their money and publish annual accounts, which must set out how much funding was held by each of their academies. In addition, a breakdown of each academy’s income and expenditure is available on the schools financial benchmarking website.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
21336
Session
2023-24
Subjects
Disclosure of information Finance Academies
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk