Academy Trust Handbook 2023

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has published the Academy Trust Handbook 2023 and it came into effect on 1 September 2023.

What does the handbook contain?

It contains several key changes, including:

• Related party transactions: an increase in the threshold beyond which ESFA approval is required for related party transactions from £20k to £40k.
• Annual reporting: removing the requirement for explanations in annual accounts when holding fewer than six board meetings per year.
• Budget setting: providing an additional month to submit annual budget forecast returns.
• Budget monitoring: providing more discretion in the distribution of management accounts.
• Sustainability: confirming that salary sacrifice schemes can be set up for electric vehicles, in most cases without ESFA approval

The changes are summarised on page 7 of the PDF. You can download the PDF here.

Schedule of musts

The ESFA has also published a Schedule of Musts for 2023.

These are the requirements in the Academy Trust Handbook brought together into one list - the ‘musts’ - but this is not a substitute for considering the handbook in full. You can download the Schedule of Musts here.

For more information on the Academy Trust Handbook, please contact Joanne Davison using [email protected] or 0191 211 7958.