The difference between top-slicing and GAG pooling
Top-slicing
This is when a trust collects a proportion of each school’s budget, or general annual grant (GAG), to fund central services. The schools within the trust keep most of their own GAG funding.
Some trusts set a flat-rate contribution. Some have a variable top-slice, taking into account factors such as phase, pupil numbers or performance data with the intention that each school pays according to the level of support it'll need from the trust.
See examples at the end of this article.
GAG pooling
This is when the trust holds the GAG from all schools centrally, and delegates smaller amounts of funding to each school for it to control. The idea is that schools will need smaller individual budgets as the trust provides many services centrally.
See examples at the end of this article.
