Information about the recently announced trust capacity fund for the 2019 to 2020 financial year.

The trust capacity fund (TCaF) will award up to £17 million to support trust growth and development across England.

Use the trust capacity fund eligibility checker (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 1.05MB) to check your eligibility.

Applications will open in September 2019 and close in December 2019. Awards will be made in conjunction with growth approved by regional schools commissioners (RSCs).

Application forms will be published in August with additional guidance materials.

TCaF will have 4 strands:

  • A1: supporting strong multi-academy trusts (MATs) to grow and innovate in areas of long-standing need
  • A2: encouraging strong trusts to grow by converting and improving weaker maintained schools, or adding vulnerable academies to their trust and improving them
  • B: accelerating the development of mid-sized trusts with the potential to be strong
  • C: creating new strong trusts, either by single-academy trusts (SATs) joining larger trusts, or by supporting the growth of existing trusts via mergers, or priority projects identified by RSCs

Each strand has different eligibility criteria, dependent on the following metrics:

  • financial health
  • trust size
  • school improvement
  • progress
  • phonics attainment
  • English Baccalaureate (EBacc)

Funding will not be ring-fenced for each strand. However, there will be a sliding scale and a maximum cap on funding.

Strand Grant value range
A1 £50,000 to £310,000
A2 £50,000 to £200,000
B £20,000 to £150,000
C £20,000 to £100,000

Eligibility for the fund will be determined in 2 stages. Stage one will use published criteria to determine whether a trust is eligible to apply, and under which strand of the fund.

Once an eligible trust makes an application for funding, alongside their application for growth, RSCs will undertake a stage 2 assessment. They will make a final decision on whether the trust should be funded, under national guidelines, and taking into account the outcome of the application for growth.

This assessment will be subject to national moderation.

Published 19 July 2019