Academy Trust Handbook 2026: what’s changing and how to prepare your trust 

The Academy Trust Handbook is the Department for Education (DfE) document that sets out the financial and governance requirements every academy trust must follow. It was previously called the Academies Financial Handbook, and you may still see it referred to that way. It covers roles and responsibilities, financial management and controls, in-year reporting, audit, and the standards trustees and accounting officers are held to. The DfE updates it each year, and compliance is a condition of a trust's funding agreement. 

The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 was published on 15 July 2026 and takes effect on 1 October 2026. New editions usually come into force at the start of the school year, but implementation was moved to October this year to give trusts more time following a later-than-usual publication. Until then, the 2025 handbook remains in force. 

The handbook applies to all academy trusts, and the accounting officer, usually the trust's CEO, is responsible for ensuring the trust meets its requirements. 

Here is a short summary of the main changes. For the full detail and exact wording, the Academy Trust Handbook 2026 on GOV.UK is the source of truth - the points below are a brief summary, but you should refer to the handbook itself for the detail.  

Greater financial transparency 

Perhaps the biggest change is a new financial transparency requirement. Multi-academy trusts must now publish a summary statement on their website by 31 January each year, alongside the annual accounts, setting out how funding is distributed across their schools. In practice this means being able to produce a clear, per-school breakdown of income and spend, which is far easier when your budgeting and finance systems already report at both trust and school level. 

A stronger push on ICFP 

The handbook strengthens its position that academies should use integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) to connect curriculum, staffing and budget decisions. It reflects the DfE's consistent direction that curriculum, workforce and finance are one conversation, not three, and that trusts should be able to show how staffing decisions affect financial sustainability over the longer term. 

Controls on executive pay 

DfE approval must now be secured before a trust advertises any post where pay would exceed £174,000, or the pro rata equivalent, or where performance-related pay would exceed £25,000. Trusts must also seek approval where they believe executive pay should rise faster than teachers' pay. 

CFO qualifications for larger trusts 

For trusts with more than 3,000 pupils, the chief financial officer should hold a professional accountancy qualification or the CIPFA Level 7 qualification. CFO recruitment from 1 October 2026 should specify this, and from 1 September 2027 it must. A trust planning to appoint a CFO who does not meet this must inform the DfE in advance. 

Stronger governance and financial oversight 

Boards are expected to have sufficient financial knowledge to hold executives to account, with financial training for trustees and particularly for finance, audit and risk committee members. Accounting officers must apply candour and transparency with the board on financial management and irregularity and must tell the board where the trust's ability to operate as a going concern is at risk. 

Procurement frameworks 

At renewal, trusts must use the DfE's energy for schools service or a DfE-approved deal unless they can source comparable pricing elsewhere, and must use the government's framework for supply teachers. From September 2027, management information system (MIS) contracts must align with the DfE's MIS framework. 

Inclusion 

Trusts are expected to embed inclusion across their provision, with a trust-wide approach and a designated trustee or committee to oversee inclusion, including SEND. The DfE has signalled further changes to come this year, including new trust standards, commissioning guidance and a consultation on the local tier of trust governance. 

Electric vehicle salary sacrifice now allowed  
EV salary-sacrifice schemes no longer need prior DfE approval, provided the trust documents mitigations so no cost or liability falls on the trust. 

Approval needed for alternative pension schemes  
From 1 October 2026, a trust proposing any alternative to the Teachers' Pension Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme must seek DfE approval early, before any changes are communicated to staff. 

Digital, technology and cyber standards
The handbook reminds trusts to work towards the DfE digital and technology standards, including cyber security, by 2030, and confirms that trusts must not pay ransom or extortion demands, including cyber ransomware. 

Broader internal scrutiny 
The programme of internal scrutiny now explicitly covers both financial and non-financial controls, giving the board independent assurance across a wider range of risks. 

This is where the effort is best spent. Most of the 2026 changes come down to being able to report your finances clearly and evidence your decisions, so the trusts that will find October straightforward are the ones that get their reporting and processes in order early. Here’s a view of potential priorities to focus on before the start of the autumn term: 

• Financial reporting: check you can produce a per-school breakdown of income and spend for the summary statement due by 31 January. If your reporting only works at trust level, this is the gap to close first. The handbook also requires monthly management accounts shared with the chair, so if your month-end is slow or manual, that is worth addressing sooner rather than later. For how to compare that per-school spend against similar schools and act on what it shows, read our guide to schools financial benchmarking.
• Pay and recruitment: review any planned senior appointments against the new pay-approval thresholds and, for larger trusts, the CFO qualification rules. 
• Governance: plan financial training for trustees, especially finance and audit committee members, and confirm your board's oversight arrangements. 
• Procurement: check energy, supply teacher and, ahead of 2027, MIS contracts before renewal. Take a look at our article on the hidden risks of education procurement frameworks. 
• Assign ownership: the accounting officer is responsible overall, but each change needs a named owner and a timeline. 

You may not need new software to comply with the handbook, but the requirements that create the most work are the ones the right systems are built to handle for you.  

Monthly management accounts 

The handbook requires an income and expenditure account against budget, a cash flow forecast and a balance sheet every month, shared with the chair. Our trust and school-level finance software produces these at the click of a button and keeps your actuals reconciled through automated bank reconciliation, so the monthly cycle is quicker and the figures are consistent. 

The summary statement  

Publishing how funding is distributed across your schools by 31 January means producing a clear, per-school view of income and spend. Our consolidated budgeting and reporting for multi-academy trusts reports at single-school, group or whole-trust level, and lets you drill down from the trust view into any single academy for more detail. 

Controls that match your scheme of delegation 

The handbook expects a written scheme of delegation, segregation of duties and sound internal controls. Controls within your systems should match to the owners of the tasks. Our accounts payable software for trusts routes each approval against your delegation levels, flags duplicate invoices and keeps a full audit trail, and helps school business managers buy against approved frameworks. 

Evidence ready for audit 

With every invoice, quote and supporting document held against the transaction and available to auditors, and records retained for the required period, the evidence behind your accounts and your accounting officer's statement of regularity is there when you need it, rather than reconstructed at year-end. 

One set of data for every return 

The per-school data behind the summary statement is the same trust-level information that feeds your three-year forecasts and your academies budget forecast return, so getting your reporting in order once serves all of them. See our guide to preparing your academies budget forecast return.