Academy Trust Handbook 2022

The ESFA released the Academy Trust Handbook 2022 fairly quietly and later than usual, on 24th August 2022. Blink and you could have missed it.

The new version of the handbook has a foreword from Baroness Berridge, the Secretary of State for the School System, appointed 17th March 2021. The handbook places no new requirements on trusts, but does provide new, expanded information about the following areas.

• Financial reporting – confirming the withdrawal of the Budget Forecast Return Outturn (paragraph 2.15)
• Special payments – clarifying (paragraph 5.12) that prior approval of staff severance payments applies only to “special” (non-statutory/non-contractual) payments
• Indemnities – confirming that trusts will be able to enter into indemnities which are in the normal course of business without seeking approval (paragraph 5.19)
• Religious Character – extending the scope of paragraph 5.57 from dioceses to all religious authorities, confirming when the “at cost” requirement is met.

There was much speculation about this year’s update and the reshuffles within the ESFA in connection with scope and responsibility. We know that the core of the ESFA is due to remain with financial controls and assurance, and the handbook update, in being fairly muted, has confirmed consistency while these changes are progressed though the appropriate channels and the world has larger scale matters to think about in connection with running our trusts.

We know that the need for strong financial governance has never been more relevant, with the fuel costs crisis, salaries costs and the need to ensure financial sustainability for our trusts. While all the pressure is on getting it right, the new handbook, with such minimal change will, perhaps, be a welcome break and one less thing to worry about to many for this next 12 months.

If you would like to discuss your financial governance, contact our Academies team.