17 February 2020
The Trust Capacity Fund (TCF) was first announced by the DfE in July 2019.
The Trust Capacity Fund 2020 to 2021 will be following on from its predecessor 2019/2020 programme. Predominantly, the aim is for the fund to award up to £17 million to support academy trust growth and development.
The 2020/2021 TCF will also be supporting outstanding or good local authority maintained rural hamlet and rural village schools to collaborate and create new, strong multi-academy trusts (MATs).
The TCF will have five strands. Funding will not be ring-fenced for each strand. However, there will be a sliding scale and a maximum cap on funding.
Grant values
The core principles of the fund to consider and the amounts available are as follows:
| Strand purpose | Amount available |
| A1: supporting strong trusts to grow and innovate in areas of long-standing need | £50,000 to £310,000 |
| A2: encouraging strong trusts to grow by converting and improving weaker maintained schools or adding vulnerable academies to their trust and improving them | £50,000 to £200,000 |
| B: accelerating the development of mid-sized trusts with the potential to be strong | £50,000 to £150,000 |
| C: creating new strong trusts either by single academy trusts joining larger trusts or by supporting the growth of existing trusts via mergers or priority projects identified by regional schools commissioners (RSCs) | £50,000 to £100,000 |
| D: supporting outstanding or good local authority maintained rural schools to collaborate and create new, strong multi-academy trusts (MATs) | £50,000 to £100,000 |
Further details
The DfE are due to publish full fund details in early March 2020. Details will include guidance on the TCF, an eligibility checker and the assessment criteria.
There will be two application periods as follows:
- 6 April 2020 until July 2020
- September 2020 until December 2020
Funding activity will run from 6 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.
To find out more, you can visit the DfE's guidance pages here.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of grant funding, please contact one of our Academy experts who will be able to help.
