GovWire

The academy conversion support grant gives schools up to 25,000 to spend on the process of converting to an academy.

The grant supports schools to convert voluntarily. It will end on 1 January 2025.

To apply for the grant, your school must:

• meet the eligibility criteria
• submit your application by 20 December 2024

We will not accept incomplete or late applications.

We will consider applications in January and February 2025.

Eligibility

Schools must 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

How to apply

Tell your Department for Education (DfE) regions group office before you apply.

Complete the academy conversion support grant claim form (MS Word Document, 20.5 KB), and send it to your DfE project lead, to apply. You must meet the conditions of the grant.

Guidance on the process for converting to academy status is available.

How you can use the grant

You can use the grant to:

• get legal advice
• pay for software licence transfers
• get advice on human resources and meeting TUPE regulations
• pay rebranding costs
• pay expenses towards setting up the academy trust

Tell DfE how you have spent the grant

Use the declaration of grant expenditure (MS Word Document, 19.4 KB) to let your Department for Education project lead know:

• how much of the support grant you have spent on converting to an academy
• if you are carrying a portion of the grant over into your academys budget