The updated accounts framework is now available use for accounting periods ending 31 August 2025.

It is also worth noting that the Department for Education has now taken full responsibility for oversight of academies after the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) was disbanded.

The DfE stressed that changes to this year’s Academies Accounts Direction have been ‘kept to a minimum this year’.

The key changes involve updates for academy trusts to reflect the Companies Act 2006 requirement for the inclusion of a non-financial and sustainability information statement within the strategic report, depending on trust size (paragraph 2.13).  This requirement applies if the academy trust’s turnover in the year was more than £500m and it has 500 or more employees.