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Revealed: The academy chains that shared £30m growth funding

Hundreds of academy chains that received a slice of a £30 million fund to help them expand have been named by the Department for Education.

350 academy chains received lump sums ranging from £15,000 to more than £300,000 from the regional academy growth fund last year.

Amongst the chains that received the largest windfalls in the 2016-17 financial year were TBAP trust, Wellspring academy trust, Moor End Academies trust, Transform trust, and Aspirations Academies trust.

Aston Community Education trust, Consortium academy trust, Derby Diocesan academy trust, Ebor academy trust and Liverpool Diocesan schools trust rounded out the top 10 biggest winners.

The DfE claimed the money was to let “successful trusts grow” and “improves standards in underperforming schools”.

The TBAP trust, which specialises in alternative provision, received £360,000 for its expansion, while Blackpool multi-academy trust got £15,000.

<a href=httpschoolsweekcoukacademy trusts wanting cash to grow rejected by dfe target= blank rel=noopener>READ MORE Academy trusts wanting cash to grow rejected by DfE<a>

However, Schools Week can reveal that not all of these trusts actually expanded last year. Of the five trusts that received the most cash, Wellspring took on two new schools, Moor End one, while Transform acquired five new schools.

However Aspirations Academies and TBAP did not take stewardship of any more schools last year.

In fact, the trusts which expanded the most got considerably less money. For instance, the Diocese of Oxford academy trust took on eight new schools last year, but only received £50,000.

Similarly, the Elliot Foundation academies trust absorbed five new schools but got £84,000.

In total, 350 of the 850 multi-academy trusts in England were awarded money.

The top 10

  1. TBAP trust – £360,000
  2. Wellspring academy trust – £300,000
  3. Moor End academies trust – £275,000
  4. Transform trust – £274,000
  5. Aspirations Academies trust – £235,000
  6. Aston Community Education trust – £225,000
  7. The Consortium academy trust – £221,000
  8. Derby Diocesan academy trust – £220,000
  9. Ebor academy trust – £200,000
  10. Liverpool Diocesan Schools trust – £200,000

See the full list here.

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