Academy school sector funding and attracting inward investment: How can the Academies Handbook act as enabler?

The academies handbook is now 17 years old and the landscape across our sector has significantly evolved over the years. Does it enable our sector to meet its current challenges?

• Over 50% of schools have now converted and 60% of our children are now educated in an academy school.
• The school estate footprint accounts for over 50% of the government property portfolio yet is only awarded 15% of overall estate funding.
• Schools contribute 2% of all UK greenhouse emissions but after 3 rounds of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, we have only been awarded 7% of the available funding.
• We face a backlog funding chasm of circa £15 billion to address our aged building stock.

If we accept that government has finite resources, is it not time to explore sensible and regulated routes towards market investment to address our condition and net zero challenges?

This roundtable discussion brings interested academy sector professionals together to debate possible ways forward to address the issues.