Academy/School Funding - What’s the game plan?

Academies not always but most of the time eventually form a multi academy trust. This is usually other like-minded local headteachers or a secondary securing feeder primaries.

Trusts will start on the CIF (condition improvement fund) route, bidding for capital grants to spend on the building’s condition needs. Depending on the type of need and the quality of the bid this has varying success rates, I usually recommend expecting just less than 50%.

Once a trust reaches 5 schools and 3000+ pupils in total, the funding swaps to SCA (School condition allocation) this is a formula-based exercise that the Department for Education decide. This is a fixed amount that is afforded to the trust for expenditure as they see fit (no bidding required). It is very hard to predict the amount of funding and usually takes at least a year or 2 to have a reasonable guess at what the figure will be based on previous year/s growth of the trust in that time etc.

So, if you are a trust nearing the SCA threshold or are advising one, what is the best way forward stay away from the threshold and remain CIF or keep growing to SCA. There are a few things to consider;

1.    What success has the trust had so far with CIF? If the trust has experienced good results with CIF it can be beneficial to continue as the funding available is generally greater. The average CIF bid this year in our office was around ￡700k on a single project some schools got both bids so in excess of ￡1.4m for one school site, where a SCA eligible trust I work with got around ￡500k in SCA funding for all 9 schools.

2.    If the trust has been successful with CIF, have they rectified all the condition related needs? The success rate of their future CIF bids will drop off as the buildings are generally in better condition, making it harder to clearly demonstrate need in future bids.

3.    Is the trust is a fortunate position of the buildings being in repetitively good condition? CIF is unlikely to be successful however the annual SCA funding could go along way. one note here is that the SCA funding is based somewhat on the condition of the buildings so their allocation may well be lower than expected.

4.    Is the trust truly benefiting from CIF funding in the long run, the trust may be gaining large sums for a one-off project, however this may not benefit the campus/ school site. The predicable SCA funding each year can lead to better planning of resourcing and implementing an estates strategy.

5.   Ultimately if the trust want control, SCA should be the goal, the security of having a fixed (ish) pot of funding each year can make the agony of CIF go away. However, as SCA relies on the trust deciding where the funding is spent, there is often a layer of inner and sometimes complicated politics.

Whether the route is CIF or SCA it is clear that trusts need a plan moving forward, what to aim their CIF bids on or where to allocate SCA.