Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2016 to Question HL8119, how much of the £300 million (a) set aside to support schools to convert and support sponsors to turn around failing schools and (b) to support strong and effective multi-academy trusts to grow and improve has been (i) spent by her Department and (ii) returned to the public purse.

Through our careful management of the economy we have been able to protect the core schools budget in real terms. That means schools are receiving more funding than ever before for children’s education, totalling over £40 billion this year.

When the Government launched our Educational Excellence Everywhere white paper, it was clear that we would attend to and reflect on the discussions around it. After listening to the sector, in May 2016 the Department confirmed that it would no longer be pursuing full academisation by 2022.

It remains our ambition that all schools will become academies, but removing the requirement for this to happen by 2022 means that our spending on school support will depend on the new rate of academy conversion. We are monitoring this and will allocate funds according to the expected rate and need. Indicatively, in 2016-17 we expect to spend around £90 million on supporting schools to convert, supporting sponsors to turn around the schools they take on, and supporting strong multi-academy trusts to deliver higher academic standards for pupils.