Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with the University of Brighton Academies Trust on the proportion of the public funding it receives that is passed on to schools in Hastings and Rye constituency.

Academy trusts are the responsible, accountable body for all the money allocated to their individual academies, and the 2023 Academy Trust Handbook permits academy trusts to amalgamate academies’ General Annual Grant (GAG) to form one central fund. This allows academy trusts to direct funds in line with improvement priorities and needs across their schools.

The handbook also sets out that, where a trust decides to pool GAG, it must consider the funding needs and allocations of each constituent academy. The academy trust must also have an appeals mechanism in place. If an appeal is not resolved, an appeal can be escalated to Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The government is clear that strong accountability is non-negotiable. That is why the government has committed to bring multi-academy trusts into the inspection system, to make the system fairer and more transparent, and to enable intervention when schools and trusts are not performing to the required standards.