Trust Capacity Fund 2020 to 2021

The Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) 2020 to 2021 is set to open for two periods. The first being on 6 April 2020 to July 2020 and the second between September and December 2020. The funding activity will also commence on 6 April 2020 but will go through to 31 March 2021. All funded activity must be completed by this date.

The first round will see all growth applications approved at headteacher boards by 31 July 2020, with the second round having an approval deadline of 31 December 2020.

Applications for TCaF must be linked to a successful growth proposal, approved by the relevant RSC, in order to be eligible. Trusts with growth proposals approved by their RSC between February 2020 and December 2020 headteacher boards will be eligible to apply for funding through the Trust Capacity Fund 2020 to 2021.

TCaF uses a two-stage application process. 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 Regional School Commissioners (RSCs) will undertake a stage two assessment, evaluating each project on the information contained within the application. RSCs will make a final decision on whether the trust should be funded, under national guidelines.

TcaF will this year have 5 strands, including a new strand to cover rural schools, encouraging collaboration and the creation of “new, strong multi-academy trusts (MATs)”.

The strands are:

• 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 (£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)

The overall funding pot has remained consistent with that of the previous year (£17 million) and therefore obtaining funding with the addition of Strand D will more competitive than ever.

More details including eligibility trackers for the various strands and application forms can be found here.