The Government has provided updated guidance on whether schools, nurseries and other entities primarily funded by public money can access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).  It appears that some will be able to (read more here).
The guidance to date has been clear, organisations which are primarily funded by government and continue to receive that funding are not expected to access the CJRS.  However, there is a sentence in the new guidance which says:
“Organisations which continue to receive government funding should not furlough staff whose salaries that funding could typically be considered to fund”. 
This means that if the salaries are funded from other sources, e.g. from self generated income, then furloughing is an option.  The full guidance goes on to say that “ due to the variety of organisations in the education, early years and children’s social care sectors and the different types of support on offer, it may be appropriate for organisations to access a mixture of different support”.
CJRS is seen as a last resort and organisations are expected to look at cost reduction and other funding generation such as loans before using the CJRS.
There are 5 conditions to be met before furloughing can be considered:

• The employee works in an area of the business where services are temporarily not required and where their salary is not covered by public funding
• The employee would otherwise be laid off or made redundant
• The employee is not involved in delivering provision which has already been funded
• (Where appropriate) the employee is not required to deliver provision for a child of a critical worker and/ or vulnerable child
• The grant from CJRS would not lead to financial reserves being created.

State funded schools including academies:
The guidance reiterates that the government does not expect schools to furlough staff.  However, it is now recognised that many academies generate private income through before and after school provisions, catering and lettings.  If staff are typically paid from those private income streams, furloughing might be an option as long as the 5 conditions above are met.