Academy Trust Handbook 2026: what’s changing for trusts

The Department for Education (DfE) has just published the latest iteration of the Academy Trust Handbook 2026, effective from 1 October 2026. While the overarching framework for financial governance and management remains familiar, several changes will require trusts’ attention ahead of the effective date.

We set out the key developments below, organised by theme.

Governance and financial oversight

The new edition places greater emphasis on inclusion and collaboration, introducing a substantial new section on trusts’ strategic approach to inclusion, oversight of SEND provision and partnership working with local authorities — an area not previously addressed in this level of detail.

Trustees’ financial knowledge and expertise are also given a firmer footing. Where the 2025 edition simply expected boards to identify “sufficient financial knowledge”, the 2026 edition calls for “sufficient and effective financial knowledge and expertise”, alongside a clearer expectation of financial training for trustees, particularly those sitting on finance and audit and risk committees.

Perhaps the most significant change for larger trusts concerns the qualifications expected of chief financial officers (CFOs). Previously, trusts with over 3,000 pupils were merely encouraged to consider accountancy qualifications when recruiting a CFO. The 2026 edition introduces a phased requirement: recruitment exercises commencing on or after 1 October 2026 should specify a qualified accountant or CIPFA level 7 holder, moving to a firm requirement for exercises commencing on or after 1 September 2027.

Trusts proposing to appoint someone without these qualifications will need to notify the DfE in advance and explain their reasoning. We would encourage trusts that are approaching a CFO recruitment process to factor this timeline into their planning.

A new duty also requires the accounting officer to notify the board and, where appropriate, the DfE if the trust’s ability to continue as a going concern is identified as being at risk, reinforcing the existing financial sustainability obligations.

Local governance: a new expectation on financial literacy

Trusts with a local tier of governance should take note of a subtle but important shift in the 2026 handbook. While financial knowledge expectations on trustees have traditionally sat at board level, the department now makes it clear that this expectation cascades down.

Boards should ensure that committees, local committees and local governing bodies also have sufficient and effective financial knowledge and expertise, supported by appropriate training in financial management, control, monitoring and reporting.

This builds on a similar tightening at audit and risk committee level, where at least one member should now bring recent or relevant accountancy or audit assurance experience to the table. Neither change is currently a ‘must’, but trusts with multiple academies and an active local governing body structure would be well advised to review the skills mix at that tier now rather than waiting for the expectation to firm up in a future edition — particularly given the department’s practice of steadily converting ‘should’ positions into ‘must’ requirements, as seen elsewhere in this edition with CFO qualifications.

Procurement, pay, pensions and technology

The 2026 edition introduces a cluster of new procurement obligations that trusts will need to build into their purchasing processes. Trusts must now factor in DfE purchasing opportunities and record their decision-making accordingly. They must also use the Government Commercial Agency framework for supply staffing requirements, unless a genuinely cheaper compliant alternative is available, and must use DfE Energy for Schools or an approved energy deal when contracts come up for renewal.

Trusts should also be aware of a new requirement to align all management information system contracts with the DfE’s framework by September 2027, with specific transitional arrangements applying in the interim.

On pay, from 1 October 2026, any new appointment carrying remuneration above £174,000 (or performance-related pay above £25,000) will require DfE approval before the post is even advertised.

By contrast, one welcome relaxation is that electric vehicle salary-sacrifice schemes no longer require prior DfE approval, provided the trust has appropriate mitigations in place and is not subject to a Notice to Improve.

Trusts considering an alternative to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme will, from 1 October 2026, need to approach the DfE for approval at the planning stage before any proposals are communicated to staff.

Transparency and accountability

Multi-academy trusts face a new website publication requirement: a summary statement, published by 31 January 2027 alongside the annual accounts, explaining how funding is distributed across the trust’s schools.

The 2026 edition also expands its treatment of severance payments, confirming that confidentiality clauses attached to special severance payments are always treated as novel, contentious or repercussive and therefore require prior DfE approval. Such clauses must never be used to prevent whistleblowing disclosures or limit the DfE’s ability to assess the payment.

The regulator’s intervention powers are also described in more detail, with the 2026 edition clarifying that the Secretary of State may issue a direction specifying required remedial action and a timeframe where a trust breaches its funding agreement, with enforcement available through the courts if the trust fails to comply. This sits alongside the existing Notice to Improve regime, which is otherwise carried forward largely unchanged.

Areas of continuity

Trusts will be reassured that the core requirements around internal scrutiny, annual accounts, external audit and the majority of delegated authority thresholds, including the £40,000 related party transaction limit, remain materially unchanged between the two editions.

Given the range of new obligations, spanning senior recruitment, procurement, pay approval and website disclosures, we recommend that trusts review their scheme of delegation, recruitment practices for senior finance roles and current website publications well ahead of the 1 October 2026 effective date.