The Department for Education is considering drawing up GAG pooling guidance following controversies over the amounts trusts take from school budgets. The move would give leaders 鈥渕ore support鈥� over how to handle academy cash, said Lindsey Henning, director of schools financial support and oversight at the Most MATs top-slice their schools鈥� general annual grant (GAG) cash to pay for central services. However, growing numbers are opting to pool the money, a method that offers much less transparency, but allows them to distribute funding more evenly across their academies. Accounting expert Will Jordan, of IMP Software, said trusts are 鈥渃urrently having to navigate their thinking around this without any real direction鈥� from government. 鈥淸Guidance] would give clarity to the sector鈥� and help demystify this area that many leaders, both trust and school, are grappling with,鈥� he said. ‘Preventing financial difficulties’ Henning, who was speaking at the Schools and Academies Show, said government is 鈥渓ooking at鈥� drawing up GAG pooling guidance 鈥渢his year鈥� to 鈥済ive more support [and] informed decision making鈥�. She explained it is part of the ESFA鈥檚 focus on 鈥減reventing [financial] difficulties from happening鈥�. Similar guidance was published on trust reserves. A survey suggests a fifth of trusts GAG pool, but another 30 per cent want to do it. But it is controversial. Unions publicly challenged plans for REAch2, England鈥檚 largest primary-only MAT, to GAG pool last year, alongside a centralisation plan that involved job losses. Staff at the Hastings Academy, in East Sussex, are preparing to ballot for strike action over the University of Brighton Academies Trust鈥檚 鈥渆xcessive鈥� pooling arrangements. Just over 13 per cent of pooled school income is retained to pay for services such as attendance support and estates teams at the trust. One school is having 20 per cent of its cash retained centrally. Phil Reynolds, of PLR Advisory, said another problem lies when such schools are re-brokered 鈥� with leaders unsure how much funding a GAG-pooled school should leave with.