Academies

For local authority controlled schools that convert to Academy status, Kent County Council will contact them to ensure their continued participation in the Fund. If you are a new free school or an Academy please contact the Treasury and Investments team as soon as you have a date for establishment.

Please note this refers to non-teaching staff. Teaching staff must be members of the Teacher’s Pension, which operates separately to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

For Teachers Pension purposes, a school becoming an Academy will need to contact Teachers Pensions, Darlington, the employers line telephone number is 0345 300 3756. The Academy will need to request access to the Employer portal and may wish to email their request to Teachers Pensions.

The Department of Education offer some guidance for conversion.

The LGPS regulations allow an academy to enter a LGPS fund as a scheduled body. View information about The LGPS regulations (Academies).

You will need a report from the Fund actuary to certify your employer contribution rate. View information about the Actuary report including what you need to do and how much it will cost.

There are many employers in the Kent Pension Fund. View information about Academies in the Fund.

When an employer joins the Fund they accept ongoing financial liabilities. View information about your employer financial responsibilities.

Some employers must show their pension liabilities in their annual accounts. View information about annual accounting reports FRS102/IAS19 including the cost of a report.

Local Government Pension Scheme (England) – Arrangements for academies (PDF, 483.0 KB)

In conjunction with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education, the Local Government Association has published “Local Government Pension Scheme – arrangements for academies”. This is intended for schools considering conversion to academy status, academy trusts, multi-academy trusts and administering authorities.

Contents of the paper include guidance for academy trusts on preparing to be an LGPS employer; their role and responsibilities post conversion; the position of multi-academy trusts in the scheme; pooling arrangements; understanding scheme deficits; outsourcing services; the Department for Education guarantee and academy re-brokerage.

Although the advice given in the paper is intended to have wide application across the LGPS funds in England, some variation in policy and approach across all the funds and their advisers is inevitable. Schools engaged in conversion are therefore encouraged to contact their local fund as early as possible in the process and seek assistance from independent professional advisors retained by them for the purpose.