Education and Skills Funding Agency
Piccadilly Gate
Store Street
Manchester M1 2WD
Reference: 2020-0003377
2020-0003379
21 February 2020
Sent via email –
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Ms Downs,
Freedom of Information Requests
I refer to your requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act (2000)
(“the Act”), which we received on 31 January 2020. You requested:
I should be grateful if you could let me have details of non-repayable grants to academy
trusts to stabilize their finances in the financial year 2018/19:
1 Total amount
2 Names of trusts
3 Amounts which each trust received
and
I should be grateful if you could give me details of academy trusts receiving advances to
stabilize their finances in financial year 2018/19:
1 Total amount
2 Names of trusts receiving these loans
3 Amount of each loan
4 Conditions of repayment (e.g. term, interest)
I have dealt with your requests under the Act.
Regarding points 1, 2 and 3 of both of your requests:
• Total amount of non repayable grants/advances to trusts in 2018/19 to stabilise their
finances
• Names of trusts receiving these grants/advances
• Amounts received
The Department does not hold the information requested, in the format you requested,
because it operates a live accountancy system that does not capture trust level payments
data. As such, the Department is not obliged to manually create this information for you.
However, the Department has committed to collate and publish trust level data on 2018/19
non-repayable grants and long term recoverable funding (advances) as part of the 2018/19
Academy Sector Annual Report and Accounts, which is due for publication in the Summer.
Regarding point 4 of your second request:
• The conditions of repayment for advances of funding
It should be noted that the Department does not charge interest on these advances. As
above, the Department does not hold the information requested, in the format you
requested. This information is managed within individual case files and therefore,
responding to your request would necessitate manual collation of individual case records
and cross referencing with the system referenced above to create new data on the specific
conditions for all payments in scope.
Further to your request, it may also be helpful for you to know that in November 2019, the
Department published the
Academy Trust Financial Support Framework. This framework
provides trusts, and the public, with greater clarity to the circumstances in which we would
offer financial support to financially vulnerable trusts. It sets out more information about our
expectations and requirements for receiving this support, and the conditions we may apply
to ensure any support is managed effectively.
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your requests, you should make a
complaint to the Department by writing to us within two calendar months of the date of this
letter, quoting reference 2020-0003377 and/or 2020-0003379. An independent review
panel, who were not involved in the original consideration of your requests, will consider
your complaint.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the Department, you may then
contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Yours sincerely,
Lindsey Henning/Emily Simons
Deputy Director, Performance, Operational Policy and Strategy
2