Glossary

A collection of terms commonly used across the conversions service.

# A

• Academy: An academy is a publicly funded independent school. They operate outside the local authority control.
• Articles of association: Articles of association set out the charitable purpose of the trust and its governance structure. This includes information about:

• what the trust exisits to do
• appointing and removing trust members
• establishing committees and local governing bodies

The articles also provide a framework for trusts to act within company and charity law.

• Academy trust (AT): An academy trust establishes and operates academy schools and free schools
• Academy order (AO): A document that the Department for Education (DfE) gives to a school to signify that the DfE gives its consent for the school to convert to an academy.

# C

• Commercial transfer agreement (CTA): A commercial transfer agreement is a document that is signed by the school and the trust and sets out how any contracts (like staff contracts) will transfer to the trust when the school converts to an academy.
• Converter academy: An academy that was formed by a local authority maintained school that ‘converted’ to an academy.
• Conversion support grant: This is funding given to a school to pay for the costs of the conversion. It is £25 000 and can oly be spent on specific things like legal advice, costs of software, TUPE advice, re-branding costs and expenses from setting up an academy trust.

# D

• DaRT (data and reporting tool): DaRT is a system that the academy and mainted schools directorate (AMSD) caseworkers use to manage academy schools and trusts. They will record any concerns like financial or governance concerns on this system. It is due to be decommissioned soon.
• Delivery officer: Delivery officers are the main users for the conversion internal service. They handle the internal applications for schools converting to academies, academies transfering to another trust and significant change applications. They are the lead contact for schools and trusts throughout the conversion process. They can also sometimes be called ‘project leads’ or ‘delivery leads’.
• Directive academy order (DAO): A DAO is given to a school when it recives an inadequate Ofsted rating. It is essentially forcing the school to convert to an academy.
• Dynamics 365: Dynamics 365 by Microsoft is the technology to create the TRAMS service that the regional delivery directorate (RDD) use to view data about academies and trusts. Initially all the services in the service delivery division (SDD) were going to build their services in Dynamics 365, however this proved difficult and did not meet user needs. All services in SDD are now using a GDS frontend and using Dynamics 365 in the background to surface relevant data.

# E

• Education and skills funding agency (ESFA): The ESFA is a combination of the previous Education Funding Agency (EFA) and Skills Funding Agency (SFA). It’s now a single agency accountable for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults. Within the conversion service, the ESFA handles financial concerns with schools and trusts and makes sure a school’s finances are in a good position to become an academy.

# F

• Financial deficit: Academies are expected to recover from a financial deficit within 3 years. When a school converts to an academy, the delivery officer needs to check the school does not have a fiancial defict, and if they do, they need to be able to recover in 3 years of becoming an academy. If the financial deficit is to much, the school might not be able to convert.
• Funding agreement (FA): The funding agreement provides the framework for academies or free schools to operate in. Funding agreements can consist of a master funding agreement (MFA) and a supplemental funding agreement (SFA).

The MFA is for a trust and used in application to form a new multi-academy trust. The SFA is for each of the schools joining new or exisitng trust.

# G

Government Digital Service (GDS)
Part of the Cabinet Office working on delivering platforms, products and services that help government to become joined-up, trusted and responsive to user needs.

• Get information about schools (GIAS): This is a register of schools and colleges in England. You can use GIAS to search for and download information on establishments, establishment groups (such as a local authority, trust or federation) or governors. Go to get information about schools.

# H

• Headteacher board (HTB): Headteacher boards advise the regional schools commissioner (RSC) on decisions about conversions, transfers and significant changes. They consist of a group of people with expereince in governing and running schools and academies. They have an advisory role only.
• Headteacher board template (HTB template): This is a template the delivery officers need to fill out and take to an HTB meeting. The infomation they out into these templates is about the school and the trust and why the reason for the conversion. They will also include any risks and issues to the conversion so that the HTB can make the right decision about if the school should become an academy.
• Headteacher board papers or documents: Once the HTB template is signed off, the HTB secretariat will prepare HTB papers to go to the HTB meeting. These can include the HTB template, a trust template and an academy order.

# K

• Knowledge and Information Management (KIM): KIM is the tool currently (as of February 2021) used for academy and trust management but is due to be decommisioned.

# L

• Local authority (LA): Local govaernment administration, when a school converts to an academy the local authority needs to be involved so that things like land and finances can pass to the new trust that is taking on the academy.
• Local authority information template (LA proforma): This template is sent to the local authority right at the beginning of the conversion process. The LA is expected to fill it out and send it back to the delivery officer. The delivery officer will use the information from the LA to make sure the information provided by the school is correct.
• Local authority maintained school (LA maintained school): Maintained schools are those that are funded and controlled by the local education authority.
• Land questionnaire: This should be filled out by the school or trust’s solicitors to establish how the school’s land is currently managed and how it will transfer from the local authority or owner of the land to the trust. It needs to be completed after the HTB meeting when the conversion has been approved.

# M

• Multi-academy trust (MAT): An trust that has an agreement in place with DfE to run more than one academy

# P

• Pre and post headteacher board (HTB): There are two stages to our conversion service. Pre HTB is everything that happens from when the school sends in their application form up until the HTB meeting.

Post HTB is everything that happens from when the conversion gets approved at HTB up until when the school opens as an academy. The whole process can take up to 6 months but sometimes longer depending on the complexities.

Pre and post HTB can also be called pre and post AO (academy order).

• Private finance intiative (PFI): A school or an academy may have a PFI scheme in place which can make the conversion more complicated. A PFI scheme is a way of using private sector finance and expertise to deliver public sector projects. PFI schools can get new buildings and facilites that are maintained by PFI companies. If there is a PFI scheme in place, there will be more paperwork to complete and it is a real pain point for delivery officers.
• Project lead (PL): Project leads handle the internal application for schools converting to academies, academies transfering to another trust and significant change applications. They are the lead contact for schools and trusts throughout the conversion process. They can also be called ‘delivery officers’ or ‘delivery leads’.

# R

• Regional delivery directorate (RDD): RDD is led by the National Schools Commissioner (Dominic Herrington) and delivers services to schools. RDD operates across 8 regions in England with each region having an in depth local knowledge.
• Regions in the regional delivery directorate (RDD): There are 8 regions in RDD, each region has a regional schools commissioner (RSC). The regions are:

• North of England
• East Midlands and the Humber (EMH)
• Lancashire and West Yorkshire (LWY)
• West Midlands (WM)
• South-West England (SW)
• South-East England and South London (SEESL)
• North-West London and South-Central England (NWLSC)
• East of England and North-East London (EENEL)

• Regional schools commissioner (RSC): There is an RSC in each of the 8 regions of the regional delivery directorate (RDD). The RSC has the power to make decisions on if conversions, transfers and significant changes can go ahead. They will make these decisions the the HTB meetings. The RSC can also get involved in the conversion process if there are complicated issues that need to be resolved.

# T

• Trust or sponsor template (MAT or sponsor template): This is a document that contains information about a trust. It includes infromation like the trust’s finances, people within the trust and any risks and issues with the trust. It is maintained by a Trust Relationship Manager.

# V

• Viability assessment: Delivery officers have to check if the school applying to convert to an academy is viable. This involves checking the school has been accepting more than 85% of its pupil capacity. The school’s pupil numbers are closely linked to its finances and if there are not enough pupils, this could lead to a fiancial deficit which is why delivery officers need to check this.