Academy Trust Handbook 2026: Key Changes Breakdown

Grab a strong coffee, trust leaders — the Department for Education has published the Academy Trust Handbook 2026, effective from 1 October 2026, and there's a fair bit to wrap your head around before the chaos of the first month of term calms down. Luckily, detangling handbook updates so you don't have to is a bit of a speciality for us! 

So, what's the good news? This isn't the wholesale rewrite we saw in 2025. And the bad news? What has changed touches almost every desk in the building — finance, HR, payroll, supply staffing, procurement and audit. Here's what senior leadership teams actually need to know, minus the 60-plus pages of small print.

Academy Trust Handbook 2026 at a Glance: Priority Actions

For the CFO: A New Bar for Qualifications 

This is the headline change, and it's a big one for larger trusts. If your trust educates more than 3,000 pupils, any CFO recruitment campaign launched on or after 1 October 2026 should specify that candidates hold a recognised accountancy qualification (ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or equivalent) or the CIPFA Level 7 qualification (1.46). 

Come 1 September 2027, "should" becomes "must." If you're planning to appoint someone without those credentials after that date, you'll need to explain yourself to the DfE in advance.

Trustees' own financial literacy hasn't escaped attention either — boards are now expected to actively assess whether they have sufficient financial knowledge and expertise, particularly on finance and audit committees, and to record this in the governance statement (1.31).

For Finance: Tighter Planning, Tighter Reporting 

Two quieter changes still matter. First, boards are pushed harder to take an integrated approach to curriculum and financial planning (2.13) — staffing and subject choices should be costed alongside educational decisions, not after them. Second, the accounting officer's duty to flag going concern risk to the board is stronger and more explicit (2.21): if financial sustainability is in doubt, the board must know, and know in time to act.

For Supply and Recruitment: Say Hello to the GCA Framework

Trusts must now use the Government Commercial Agency's Supply Teachers and Education Recruitment framework for their supply staffing, unless an existing alternative agreement offers rates no higher than the framework (2.28). Given the framework's capped daily rates, this is worth checking against your current supply spend sooner rather than later — retrofitting compliance mid-term is nobody's idea of fun.

The framework splits into two lots, and Lot 2's managed service model isn't always the easier or safer option it appears to be. We've broken down why Lot 1 tends to serve trusts better in our take on choosing the right Lot. 

For HR and Payroll: Pensions, EVs and Pay Controls

Three changes land squarely on HR and payroll desks:

• Senior pay controls: new appointments paying more than £174,000 (or performance-related pay above £25,000) need DfE approval before the role is even advertised — not after an offer is made. (2.31-2.34)
• Pension alternatives: proposing anything other than the Teachers' Pension Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme now requires prior DfE approval, sought before staff hear a word about it. (2.40)
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice: a rare bit of good news — trusts can now offer EV salary sacrifice schemes without prior DfE sign-off, provided robust mitigations are in place so no cost falls on the trust if an employee leaves the scheme early. (2.37)

Severance payments also get more detailed treatment, reinforcing that any settlement above statutory entitlement needs a solid legal and financial justification — not just a quiet word and a cheque (5.7-5.14).

The wider executive pay rules are reinforced too: pay decisions must be evidence-based, documented, and defensible against public sector norms — not just benchmarked and signed off (2.31-2.33).

For Compliance and Auditing: Transparency Turned Up

Multi-academy trusts must now publish a summary statement showing how funding is distributed across their schools, alongside their annual accounts by 31 January (5.32). The existing £50 million threshold for a dedicated audit and risk committee remains, based on last year's audited accounts (3.6)— so a strong year of growth could tip you over the line without you quite noticing.

Procurement rules also tighten: trusts must consider DfE-approved routes for goods and services (2.27), use the DfE Energy for Schools service (or an approved alternative) at contract renewal (2.29), and bring MIS contracts in line with the DfE's MIS framework by September 2027 (2.30).

The handbook also spells out more clearly what the Secretary of State can do where a trust breaches its funding agreement (6.17) — worth knowing, even if it's not an immediate action point.

Where Expert Guidance Helps

Between recruitment specs, pension sign-offs, supply contracts and reporting deadlines, the 2026 Handbook asks a lot of trust leaders in a short window. Reviewing your scheme of delegation, CFO job description, supply arrangements and pension policies against these changes now — rather than in September 2026 — will save considerably more than a headache later.

This article reflects the Academy Trust Handbook 2026, published by the Department for Education and effective from 1 October 2026. For the full text, see GOV.UK's Academy Trust Handbook 2026.