Consultation closing date: 31 January 2016
Your comments must reach us by that date
Changes to the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) for Academy Trusts from September 2016
If you would prefer to respond online to this consultation please use the following link:
We want to bring about changes to the RPA from September 2016 which includes reducing the RPA GAG deduction from £25 per pupil to £20 per pupil.
We invite views from:
- Academy trusts which are (or are interested in being) a member of the RPA, this includes free schools, faith schools that are academies, special academies, alternative provision academies, university technical schools, studio schools and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) academy trusts
- Church and other faith bodies
- Representative organisations and associations of academies
- Insurance industry and suppliers of insurance services
Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes, primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you want all, or any part, of your response to be treated as confidential, please explain why you consider it to be confidential.
If a request for disclosure of the information you have provided is received, your explanation about why you consider it to be confidential will be taken into account, but no assurance can be given that confidentiality can be maintained. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.
The Department will process your personal data (name and address and any other identifying material) in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.
/ Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential./ Reason for confidentiality:
/ Name:
/ Please tick if you are responding on behalf of your organisation.
/ Name of Organisation (if applicable):
/ Address:
If your enquiry is related to the DfE e-consultation website or the consultation process in general, you can contact the Ministerial and Public Communications Division by e-mail: or by telephone: 0370 000 2288 or via the Department's 'Contact Us' page.
If you would prefer to respond online to this consultation please use the following link:
The Department for Education is responsible for setting the academies General Annual Grant (GAG) deduction in relation to the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA).
The RPA membership rules detail what cover is available to RPA members. This consultation seeks views on the proposed changes to the RPA GAG deduction and rules from September 2016.
Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes, primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998.
If you want all, or any part, of your response to be treated as confidential, please explain why you consider it to be confidential.
If a request for disclosure of the information you have provided is received, your explanation about why you consider it to be confidential will be taken into account, but no assurance can be given that confidentiality can be maintained. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.
The Department will process your personal data (name and address and any other identifying material) in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.
Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential.
Reason for confidentiality:
/ Comments:Name:
Please tick if you are responding on behalf of your organisation.
Name of Organisation (if applicable):
Address:
/ Comments:
Section 1: Your details
Please select the category which best describes you as a respondent
/ Academy Trust // Insurance Industry /
/ Other
/ Representative organisations and associations of academies /
/ Church and other faithbodies
/ Comments:
1 Do you agree with the proposal to change the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) GAG deduction from £25 per pupil to £20 per pupil from September 2016?
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
2 Do you agree with the principle of increasing risk management audits for RPA members?
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
3 Do you agree with the principle of saying more about risk management in the Academies Financial Handbook, including a requirement that academies must co-operate with risk management audits and risk managers and implement reasonable risk management recommendations?
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
4 Do you agree with the principle of setting a time limit on reimbursing academies for long term insurance arrangements? The proposal is that the Education Funding Agency (EFA) will not meet further claims after 31 August 2017, three years from the start of the RPA (September 2014)
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
5 Do you agree with the principle of reducing the period of notice, which RPA members must give before leaving the RPA, from six months to three months?
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
6 Do you agree with the principle of allowing Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) to join the RPA where only some of their academies are able to join in the first instance, but subject to their commitment that their remaining academies will also join the RPA as soon as practicably possible?
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
7 Do you agree with: expanding the scope of the ‘Membership Rules for church academies’ to include other faith schools and non-church bodies i.e. any trustee body in the same position in relation to the premises used by an academy as a diocese or other Church body; and the re-titling and the re-drafting of the Membership Rules for church academies to make this clear.
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
8 Do you agree in principle to the proposed RPA clarification that the RPA will consider providing an indemnity to a Member for claims that are normally dealt with on a ‘claims occurring’ basis under RPA (namely Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11) but where a RPA Member has previously purchased an insurance policy on a ‘claims made’ basis. Claims will be considered at the request of the Member who will be required to provide evidence of the insurance cover previously purchased. Claims will not be considered in the following circumstances:
a. where the applicable claims made insurance policy was taken out or incepted after the date of this consultation ([17th December 2015])
b. for any claim where the cause of such claim occurred or that was alleged to have occurred prior to the date of the signing of the funding agreement for the relevant academy
c. to the extent that an indemnity is provided by an insurance policy
d. for claims that the Member had prior knowledge of before opting to join the RPA
e. for claims or incidents that the Member was aware of but were not notified by the Member to the insurer before the policy expiry date (or where relevant discovery period)
f. for claims related to a class of insurance where the Member had opted not to purchase an insurance policy
/ Strongly agree /
/ Agree /
/ Neither agree nor disagree
/ Disagree /
/ Strongly disagree
/ Comments:
9 Do you have any other comments on the proposed RPA changes?
/ Comments
/ Comments:
10Overall how would the proposed RPA changes affect you?
/ Comments
/ Comments:
Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.
/ Please acknowledge this reply./ Email address for acknowledgement:
Here at the Department for Education we carry out our research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable to us, please confirm below if you would be willing to be contacted again from time to time either for research or to send through consultation documents?
/ Yes /
/ No
All DfE public consultations are required to meetthe Cabinet Office Principles on Consultation
The key Consultation Principles are:
- departments will follow a range of timescales rather than defaulting to a 12-week period, particularly where extensive engagement has occurred before
- departments will need to give more thought to how they engage with and use real discussion with affected parties and experts as well as the expertise of civil service learning to make well informed decisions
- departments should explain what responses they have received and how these have been used in formulating policy
- consultation should be ‘digital by default’, but other forms should be used where these are needed to reach the groups affected by a policy
- the principles of the Compact between government and the voluntary and community sector will continue to be respected.
If you have any comments on how DfE consultations are conducted, please email:
Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.
Completed responses should be sent to the address shown below by 31 January 2016
Send by post to: Risk Protection Arrangement for Academies Team, Finance and Commercial Group, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD
Send by email to: