The Academy Trust Handbook 2026

What the handbook is, and why it binds

The Academy Trust Handbook is the DfE's "overarching framework for financial governance, management and other controls, for academy trusts in England". Until 2021 it was the Academies Financial Handbook; the new name came with an edition that reached further into governance, and the search term has outlived it. Older editions also refer to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which became part of the DfE in April 2025; the handbook now speaks of the DfE throughout. It covers single academy trusts and trusts with many academies, free schools, studio schools, university technical colleges, alternative provision and special academies.

It is not advice. The introduction says that compliance "is a condition of the funding agreement between each trust and the Secretary of State for Education", and that trustees, accounting officers, principals, senior leaders and others with responsibility for governing, managing or auditing a trust "must understand this handbook and adhere to its contents". The wording is deliberate: "must" marks a requirement, all of which are collected in a separate Schedule of Musts, and "should" marks minimum good practice which trusts should apply unless they can show an alternative better suits their circumstances.

The handbook reflects HM Treasury's Managing public money and the Seven Principles of Public Life – selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership – and it sits alongside company law and charity law, because academy trustees are both company directors and charity trustees. The DfE reviews it at least annually. The 2026 edition, published on 15 July 2026, is "effective from 1 October 2026" and replaces the 2025 edition, which took effect on 1 September 2025.

What changed in the 2026 edition

The handbook lists its own main changes. In summary:

• Inclusion and collaboration. New paragraphs 1.16 to 1.20 on trusts' responsibilities for inclusion, including a clear trust-wide approach to inclusion, board assurance over inclusive practice, a designated trustee or committee for inclusion and SEND, and working with local authorities.
• Digital and technology standards. A reminder to work towards meeting the DfE's six core standards by 2030 (1.21).
• Trustees' financial knowledge. A stronger position on the board having sufficient financial expertise, with financial training for trustees, particularly finance and audit and risk committee members (1.31).
• CFO qualifications in larger trusts. For trusts with over 3,000 pupils, the CFO should hold a professional accountancy qualification or the CIPFA level 7 qualification, with recruitment exercises from 1 October 2026 expected, and from 1 September 2027 required, to specify it (1.46).
• Financial planning and going concern. Integrated curriculum and financial planning (2.13), and a stronger obligation to report on the trust's ability to operate as a going concern (2.21).
• Procurement. Trusts must consider DfE buying opportunities and record their decision-making (2.27), with new arrangements for supply staffing, energy and management information systems (2.28 to 2.30).
• Pay and pensions. Electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes allowed under conditions (2.37); prior DfE approval before offering an alternative to the teachers' or local government pension schemes (2.40).
• Severance and publication. More on severance payments (5.7 to 5.14), and multi-academy trusts must publish how funds are distributed across their schools (5.32).
• Intervention. What the Secretary of State may do where a trust breaches its funding agreement (6.17).

The GOV.UK page also records an update on 17 September 2026 clarifying the procurement requirements for energy and management information systems. Read the current version rather than a summary, including this one, before changing a policy.

The people it names, and what each must do

Part 1 sets out who is responsible for what. The requirements that most often matter in practice:

• Members: at least three, and there should be five or more; none may be an employee; the majority should not also be trustees; none may be subject to a section 128 direction (1.3 to 1.6).
• Trustees: collectively accountable for the trust and its oversight, with the chair responsible for the board functioning effectively. They must ensure regularity, propriety and value for money in the use of public funds and take ownership of financial sustainability (1.26). The board must meet at least three times a year (2.3) and must approve a written scheme of delegation of financial powers (2.4).
• The accounting officer, normally the senior executive leader, appointed in writing and personally responsible to Parliament for the trust's resources. They must advise the board in writing if a proposed action is incompatible with the articles, funding agreement or handbook, and, if the board proceeds anyway, notify the DfE's accounting officer "immediately in writing" (1.42 and 1.43).
• The chief financial officer, to whom detailed financial procedures are delegated, attending finance and audit and risk committee meetings (1.44).
• The governance professional, the clerk to the board, who must be someone other than a trustee, principal or chief executive (1.48).

Transparency is a requirement in its own right. The trust must keep a register of business and financial interests for members, trustees, local governors and senior employees, including interests arising from close family relationships, and keep it "up to date at all times" (1.51 to 1.54). It must publish its governance structure, the register and each trustee's and local governor's attendance records on its website (1.55), and make available on request the agenda, the approved minutes and the papers for every meeting of the trustees, local committees and committees, with confidential items separable (1.56 and 1.57). Changes to members, trustees, the accounting officer and CFO, and in trusts with several academies to headteachers and local governors, must be notified through Get Information about Schools within 14 calendar days (2.54 to 2.58). Our board minutes guide covers how long the minutes themselves are kept.

Money: the decisions that must be approved, notified or recorded

Part 2 and Part 5, on financial management and delegated authorities, are where most trusts meet the handbook day to day. Several requirements are, in substance, record-keeping duties:

• The budget. The board "must approve and minute their approval of a balanced budget, and any significant changes to it" (2.10). A proposed revenue deficit that cannot be covered by unspent funds must be notified to the DfE within 14 calendar days of the meeting (2.17).
• Management accounts every month, shared with the chair every month and considered by the board when it meets (2.18 and 2.19).
• Procurement and insurance. Trusts must consider DfE buying opportunities "and record their decision-making" (2.27), and should record their decision on whether to join the risk protection arrangement (2.46).
• Executive pay. A documented, evidence-based process in an agreed pay policy, with "documented decision-making with rationale and approval by the board"; nobody involved in deciding their own pay (2.31 and 2.32). From 1 October 2026, new appointments paying over £174,000, or with performance-related pay over £25,000, need DfE approval before the post is advertised (2.34).
• Related party transactions. Every contract with a related party reported to the DfE before it starts, prior approval above £40,000 in a financial year, the "at cost" rule above £2,500 cumulatively, and "sufficient records" to show each was conducted to public-sector standards (5.41 to 5.51).
• Special severance. DfE approval before any offer where the non-statutory or non-contractual element is £50,000 or more, and before any special severance payment that is part of an exit package of £100,000 or more, goes to someone earning over £174,000, or is novel, contentious or repercussive (as any confidentiality clause is). In every case trusts "must clearly record and retain evidence of the management and approval process, including any legal advice" and the reasons for the decision (5.10 to 5.14).
• Gifts and hospitality. A policy and register, and a documented decision when the trust itself makes a gift (5.33).

The pattern is consistent. The handbook rarely forbids a decision outright; it asks that the decision be taken by the right person, within the scheme of delegation, with approval sought where a threshold is crossed, and written down. Our conflict of interest guide covers the declarations that sit behind the related party rules.

Assurance, audit and the DfE's right to see the books

Part 3 requires every trust to have a programme of internal scrutiny, overseen by an audit and risk committee appointed by the board, with written terms of reference and an annual programme of work. Trusts with annual revenue income over £50 million must have a dedicated committee; others may combine it with finance. Internal scrutiny must be independent of the senior leadership and finance team, and its annual summary report goes to the DfE with the accounts by 31 December (3.1 to 3.21). The trust must also maintain a risk register, fully reviewed by the board at least annually (2.43).

Part 4 sets the calendar for the annual report and accounts: audited, submitted to the DfE by 31 December, published on the trust's website by 31 January, filed at Companies House by 31 May, and provided to every member (4.4). The accounting officer signs a statement on regularity, propriety and compliance, which the external auditor reviews (4.12 and 4.13).

Part 6 is where the records duty becomes explicit. The trust must give the DfE or its agents "access to all books, records, information, explanations, assets, premises and staff", and the DfE may take copies (6.3). The trust must retain records verifying provision under the handbook and funding agreement for "at least 6 years after the period to which funding relates" (6.5). Fraud, theft or irregularity over £5,000, individually or cumulatively in a year, must be notified to the DfE as soon as possible with full details and dates (6.10). Where there are concerns, the DfE may issue and publish a notice to improve; its examples include breaches of related party requirements, poor internal scrutiny and trustees failing to comply with their safeguarding duties (6.18).

The DfE publishes separate record keeping and retention information for academies and academy trusts, which the handbook signposts. A trust's retention schedule should cover board and committee papers, the register of interests, approvals sought from the DfE and the evidence behind each decision the handbook asks to be recorded.

The approval given by text before the meeting

The handbook assumes decisions are taken at meetings, or under a scheme of delegation, and minuted. Trusts do not always work that way. The CFO messages the chair on a Sunday to say the boiler quote has come in over the delegated limit and the contractor can start on Monday; the chair replies "fine, go ahead, we'll ratify". A trustee mentions in the board's group chat that her brother-in-law's firm could do the IT contract. The accounting officer, uneasy about a severance figure, says so in a direct message to the chair rather than in the formal written advice paragraph 1.42 requires.

Each of those is a record the handbook cares about: an approval outside the scheme of delegation, a related party interest that belongs on the register and in a declaration, and advice that must be given in writing. If they exist only on personal phones, the trust cannot produce them when the DfE exercises its right of access under paragraph 6.3, and the minutes of the next meeting show a ratification with no trace of what was actually decided, when, or by whom.

The fix is not to stop trustees and officers messaging each other; a trust that can reach its chair on a Sunday is being run. It is to have that conversation somewhere the trust holds, and to bring the decision back to the minutes. ComplyChat provides a channel for board and executive conversations, with everyone added told that it is on the record and able to object or leave. A mobile number verified by SMS is an identity on it, so members, trustees and local governors with no trust email account can be in the same channel as the executive. On paid plans the lasting record files into the trust's own Microsoft 365 once the tenant is connected, under its own retention rules. It does not replace the scheme of delegation, the register of interests, the DfE's forms or the minutes; it keeps the conversation that led to them. ComplyChat Free is personal messaging with one private group, direct messages and three calendar months of recent history, with no Microsoft 365 archive; upgrading cannot restore expired history.

A question for the next board or audit and risk committee meeting: if the DfE asked to see how the last decision above a delegated limit was approved, would the trail start with the minutes, or with somebody's phone?

Official guidance and your next step

The primary source is the Academy Trust Handbook 2026, with its Schedule of Musts, on the handbook's GOV.UK page, which also holds the 2025 edition, the one that applies until the 2026 edition takes effect on 1 October 2026. Paragraph numbers and quotations in this guide are from the 2026 edition as published on GOV.UK in September 2026. The handbook points to the DfE's Academy trust governance guide, the Academies accounts direction, and the DfE's guidance on related party transactions, and to the Charity Commission's guidance for trustees.

This guide is a practical starting point for academy trusts in England, not legal or accounting advice about a transaction, a severance payment or a funding agreement. Your external auditor and your governance professional are the right people to check your reading of a specific paragraph.

Then do one thing: have the governance professional take the Schedule of Musts for 2026, mark each new or changed requirement against the policy or record that shows the trust meets it, and bring the gaps to the next board meeting as an agenda item with an owner for each.