New Academy Trust Handbook for 2023/24

The ESFA have written to all Academy Trust accounting officers with an update on its proposals to streamline and improve the financial oversight framework. As part of this, they have reissued the Academy Trust Handbook, which comes into force on 1 September 2023.

The new Handbook is a shorter document than in previous years, and its headline change is a doubling of the threshold for ESFA approval of related party transactions that need to be reported to the ESFA from £20k to £40k, reducing the burden on Trusts for reporting these transactions.