Academies will no longer be able to apply for funding to cover the cost of admission appeals, the Department for Education has announced.
Currently, academies that have heard more than 20 admission appeals between September 2024 and October 2025 can claim £180 towards each additional appeal heard.
announced that the funding is being cut for 2025-26, and academies will no longer be able to apply for funding to cover the cost of appeals heard after 31 October 2025.
Both the Association of School and College Leaders and the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) have warned that the cut will have a particular impact, given that schools have already set their budgets.
‘Significant’ financial impact
Julie McCulloch, director of strategy and policy at ASCL, said that the union is concerned about the withdrawal of the funding and intends to raise its concerns with the DfE.
She added: “Not only does it have a significant financial impact where there are a large number of appeals for oversubscribed schools, but it also comes after next year’s budgets have already been set.
“It adds yet another financial pressure onto schools, which are simply not in a position to be able to absorb yet more costs without sufficient government funding.”
Leora Cruddas, chief executive of CST, said the cut will particularly affect the most popular, over-subscribed schools.
The final deadline for making claims is 7 January 2026, the DfE said in a sector update today.
The funding must be applied for on the basis of a single school’s appeals, and the school must have had academy status when appeal hearings were held.
Admissions powers
It comes as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is still in the House of Lords, includes changes to admissions powers. The bill extends the power that allows local authorities to direct maintained schools to admit children to academies.
Academies will be able to appeal to the schools adjudicator when they disagree with a decision.
Councils will also be able to object to an academy’s published admissions number, which the schools adjudicator will be able to set when an objection against it is upheld. Critics have warned that this could prevent good schools from expanding.
A DfE spokesperson said: “The department will continue to ensure that funding routes support the sector where they need it most, with the best value for money. This grant was introduced in the infancy of the academies programme to support newly established academies subject to a high number of appeals at that time.
“We will continue to support high-quality trusts to help deliver exceptional results for children and young people, including those in disadvantaged areas.”
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