The rules for top-slicing
As a trust with multiple academies, you can collect a proportion of the general annual grant (GAG) funding that each of your schools receives to form a central fund.
You can use this fund to meet the costs of running any academy within your trust.
This excludes private finance initiative (PFI) funding, which you must not top-slice or pool.
When doing this, you must:
- Consider the funding needs and allocations of each of your academies
- Have an appeals mechanism in place for any academies that feel they've been unfairly treated by your top-slicing or GAG-pooling approach
The rules around top-slicing or GAG-pooling are set out in paragraphs 5.30 and 5.31 of the Academy Trust Handbook.
Academy headteachers should appeal to the trust first. If the appeal to the trust is unsuccessful, they can appeal to the secretary of state, via the Education and Skills