Guidance

Voluntary-aided schools: capital funding

Information for voluntary-aided schools about capital funding, including relevant forms.

Applies to England

Voluntary-aided schools

Voluntary-aided (VA) schools are local-authority-maintained schools and often, but not always, have a religious character. These schools are eligible for capital funding grants.

VA schools are paid on a similar basis to other categories of school, but the governing body must usually pay at least 10% of the costs of capital work.

Responsibility for work to VA school premises is shared between the school’s governing body and the local authority (LA). The LA has responsibility for the playing fields and the governing body are liable for all other capital expenditure.

Read Voluntary-aided schools: capital scheme for guidance on funding new voluntary-aided schools.

Form submission deadlines

Submit your ‘application for approval’ and ‘additional costs application’ by Tuesday 21 January 2020.

Submit all claim forms supported by invoices by Thursday 5 March 2020.

Send the completed forms to Approvals.VA@education.gov.uk.

Capital expenditure forms

Here are various forms related to capital expenditure at voluntary-aided schools:

New capital works project: application for approval (ODT, 92.2 KB) New capital works project: application for approval (MS Word Document, 118 KB) Additional costs application: for extra capital works above the original approval amount (ODT, 82.8 KB) Additional costs application: for extra capital works above the original approval amount (MS Word Document, 77.8 KB) Interim tender claim form: tender approval stage claim for if the tenders have been submitted and approved (ODT, 76.4 KB) Interim tender claim form: tender approval stage claim for if the tenders have been submitted and approved (MS Word Document, 69.5 KB) Final costs claim form: to complete the project once all invoices have been paid by the school or diocese (ODT, 86.1 KB) Final costs claim form: to complete the project once all invoices have been paid by the school or diocese (MS Word Document, 74.9 KB) Unitary PFI claim form: for private finance initiative unitary charge claims (ODT, 48.6 KB) Unitary PFI claim form: for private finance initiative unitary charge claims (MS Word Document, 66 KB) Final costs claim form: to complete the project once all invoices have been paid by the school or diocese (MS Word Document, 74.9 KB) Bank mandate - banking and payment information

Voluntary-aided schools information system: apply for a password

The voluntary-aided schools information system (VASIS) is a password-controlled site for VA schools, LAs and dioceses to access information about projects, claims and allocations.

Contact us

Email if you have queries about capital funding for VA schools, or need a VASIS password:

Voluntary-aided school capital funding

Published 11 March 2014
Last updated 17 April 2019 + show all updates
  1. Updated forms and removed forms no longer in use. Added form submission deadlines.

  2. Added sentence and link to 'Voluntary-aided schools: capital scheme'.

  3. Updates to Bank Mandate Form and Application for Approval document.

  4. Updated forms for use.

  5. Updated approval form added

  6. First published.