UK200Group shows strong performance in Education sector

Carrie Jensen, Forrester Boyd partner and Chair of the UK200Charties & Education Group announced the results to delegates at the UK200 Group academies conference in London on the 1st July. The UK200 Group members collective strength in academies has once again been reinforced showing that they act for 17% of UK MATs.

The survey this year also presented some interesting findings in relation to GAG pooling. Research shows that the primary current consideration within the academies supported by UK200Group members is the allocation of funding and whether to adopt a GAG (General Annual Grant) pooling approach to ease the financial pressure on Multi Academy Trusts.

Transferring from a local authority to a MAT can appear to be deceptively simple, but the complexities of funding and supporting all the educational establishments fairly and still balancing the books can be very challenging to school finance officers.

Carrie Jensen, said;

“The Government’s focus is to move all schools into academy status with all single academies also moving into MATs. With the government aiming for this to happen by 2030, we would expect most schools and trusts to transfer to a MAT within the next 5 years. Our advice to finance officers is to take all the support that you can get and ideally work with an organisation that understands the education sector.”

The UK200Charities and Education Group regularly meets and shares expertise and trends to ensure all the members are experts in this field and helps them to deliver that knowledge and expertise to their academy clients.

UK200Group members now provide accountancy support to 17%* of academies with two or more trusts in the UK.