Purpose

For schools converting to academy status,
local authorities must either bear the full cost of the work they
undertake by law to facilitate transfers of status, or charge the
converting school the costs, which they are entitled to do. The
charging for academy conversion costs was set in July 2019 at
£6,000 for a community or voluntary controlled school,
£5,000 for a voluntary aided school (which does not require
HR service input); and £4,000 for foundation or trust schools
(which do not require human resource and less property service
input). The charging was based on an average cost at the time. The
charges were levied for any new school formally requesting to
convert to academy status from 1 September 2019 (upon receipt of
approval from the DfE). Cabinet decision was made on 16 July 2019.
From 1 September 2024, the terms and conditions for the DfE Academy
conversion Support Grant, normally £25,000 per school, were
updated. Schools must now be part of a group of 3 or more schools
which: · are approved to convert · join the same
trust Special and alternative provision schools (also known as
pupil referral units) will be eligible to receive the grant if they
get approval to convert either: · as a single school
· with more than one school On 1 November, the Department
for Education announced that the Academy conversion Support Grant
will end on 1 January 2025.
 
Conversions have become far more complex over
time especially reaching agreements with academy trusts, with
challenges about: site ownership; rents; condition matters; future
liabilities; etc. This has led to much more legal work, that is
externalised, for leases and commercial transfer agreements (CTA).
This has also made it more difficult to achieve conversions in the
anticipated time. The costs for academy conversions have not been
reviewed annually as intended and the costs now often exceed the
level originally set in 2019. National Audit Office review of
publicly available information suggested, nationally the charges by
local authorities to schools range from £2,500 to
£20,000 per school.1 Publicly available information in the
table below shows a range of charges across the country and across
different types of councils, unitary and county councils.
 
 

Local Authority

Lower Charge
£

Upper Charge
£

Approximate Date

Brighton &
Hove

12,000

12,000

Oct-18

Cheshire East
Council

5,480

10,995

Feb-24

East Sussex
CC

10,000

12,000

Oct-24

North
Yorkshire

6,620

6,620

Jan-24

Oldham

10,000

10,000

2022

Oxford CC

6,000

6,000

Mar-24

RB
Greenwich

15,000

15,000

Sep-24

Somerset
CC

10,625

10,625

Jan-24

Warwickshire
CC

4,250

7,750

May-24

West Sussex
CC

9,000

9,000

Apr-24

 
 
 
In determining new charges to schools, to
cover some of the costs to SCC for the work being undertaken,
consideration of the following areas has been made: staffing costs
dedicated to academy conversions; the average number of conversions
per year, and a weighting for different status of schools. A simple
conversion without protracted negotiations, the average legal cost
for a CTA and Lease is £2,500 to £3,000 per agreement,
whereas legal fees have reached over £16,000 for two schools
recently.
 
The Council will be increasing charges to
£12,000 for a community and voluntary controlled school,
£6,000 for a voluntary aided school; £6,000 for
foundation schools. In addition, excessive legal cost to the
Council, that is above £6,000, will be passed to the
school.

Content

It
was AGREED that:
 

1.   
A charge of £12,000 for a community or
voluntary controlled school, £6,000 for a

voluntary aided school (which does not require HR
service input); and £6,000 for

foundation schools.

 

2.   
Excessive Legal costs above £6,000 will be
passed to the school.

 

3.   
Charges to be levied for any new school formally
requesting to convert to academy status (upon receipt of approval
from the DfE) from 1 November 2024.