Multi-academy trust faces questions over its 25 per cent topslice

Central charges at University of Chichester (Multi) Academy Trust increased five-fold in 2024-25, its latest accounts show, with one secondary having £1.6m of its budget retained by the central trust, and two primaries facing a topslice of nearly £1m each.

 

A 17-school multi-academy trust has hiked its “topslice” so that one pound in every four of core government funding for its schools is retained for spending by head office.

The University of Chichester (Multi) Academy Trust (Unicat) set topslice or central charge fees for its schools which amounted to 25 per cent of the chain’s General Annual Grant (GAG) funding from government, its 2024-25 accounts show.

The figure, which was a near five-fold increase on the charge from the previous year, is comparable to the highest ever seen by Education Uncovered.

The trust says the charges have come because of a decision to pay for a range of support services, such as IT support and maintenance work, via head office rather than at school level. However, analysis by this website suggests that leaving schools with only 75 per cent of GAG would appear to see them facing a challenge, in terms of affording school – level staffing.

Unicat’s latest accounts include the same statement as the previous year on how its central charges are calculated, with the same services said to have been billed for as in 2023-24, despite the huge change in the amounts taken from school budgets, between the two years.

The National Education Union said the trust needed  to “urgently explain where this money has gone.”