Which academy types may apply.
ESFA recognises four eligible body types. Each carries a slightly different administrative route and an evidence threshold matched to the body's governance structure.
Compiled by Oliver Wakefield-Smith, founder, Digital Signet. Reviewed against ESFA Information for Applicants 2026-27 and the Condition Funding Methodology March 2026 revision.
Single-academy trusts
A single-academy trust may submit one bid in its own name. The trustees collectively are the applicant body. There is no scale-based exclusion.
Small multi-academy trusts
A multi-academy trust is in scope only if it has fewer than 5 academies and fewer than 3,000 pupils across all phases. Both gates apply; either threshold being crossed moves the trust into School Condition Allocation territory and out of CIF.
Pupil headcount is counted at the most recent October school census, all phases included, sixth-form rolled into the parent school.
Voluntary-aided bodies and sixth-form colleges
Diocesan bodies bid on behalf of one or more VA schools. Non-diocesan VA bodies bid in their own name. Sixth-form colleges that have not converted to academy status remain eligible on the legacy VA-equivalent route.
Free schools, UTCs and conversion cut-offs
Free schools and UTCs are eligible on the same terms as academies, subject to the published conversion-date cut-off for the round. A school converting after the cut-off applies in the next cycle.
Federated maintained schools are not in scope. A maintained school must complete academy conversion before the cut-off to be eligible in the round.