Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the additional discretion available to schools by academisation, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that school funds are directed at teaching staff and the pupils in their care.

The Department’s priority is the delivery of world class education for all children from all backgrounds. The greater freedom and flexibility that academy trusts enjoy enables the strongest leaders to take responsibility for supporting more schools, developing great teachers and allowing schools to focus on what really matters – the high quality teaching of a broad and ambitious curriculum.

The 2020 Academies Financial Handbook states that the central responsibility for academy trusts is that they “must take full responsibility for their financial affairs, stewardship of assets and use resources efficiently to maximise outcomes for pupils”. Academy trusts work with parents and their local community to deliver on this responsibility. The new 2021 Academies Trust Handbook, also known as the Academies Financial Handbook, effective from 1 September 2021, reiterates the importance of involving parents in trust governance, helping to ensure that boards stay accessible and connected to the community they serve and support robust decision making. The 2021 Academies Trust Handbook is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/academies-financial-handbook/academy-trust-handbook-2021.

Academy trusts lead the way on accountability and transparency. They provide a significant amount of information to the public, setting out the trust and academy level expenditure. The Department also publishes individual academy allocation and expenditure data. This is easily accessible at individual academy level on the schools financial benchmarking website, which allows expenditure to be broken down by theme, including per pupil spend and proportion of expenditure on staff pay and resources. The schools financial benchmarking website is available here: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk.

The Department operates an effective oversight programme that provides assurance to Parliament and the public. This is delivered through a range of assurance activity and wider intelligence gathering, including from independently audited financial information and educational performance data. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and Regional Schools Commissioners work together to build a joined-up picture of each school and academy trust. They take a risk-based approach to intervene proportionately on the rare occasions when needed.

The ESFA works with academy trusts to share good practice and provide support to help them build capacity and strengthen their financial and governance position. They also offer a school resource management adviser service. This is a free service providing hands-on support from experienced school professionals who work with schools to identify opportunities for improved spending decisions which will allow money to be reinvested back into critical areas of school activity.

Academy trusts are delivering very high standard of governance, educational and financial performance. The latest published data shows that 99.3% of academy trust accounts received unqualified opinions.