Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the terms of the Academies Financial Handbook allow an academy chain to outsource all non-teaching staff to a profit-making provider.

The Academies Financial Handbook is not prescriptive about where academy trusts buy the services that they need. Trusts are free to choose, but in doing so they have important responsibilities. Paragraph 1.5.11 of the Handbook explains that trusts must exercise their discretion reasonably and in a way that commands broad public support. Paragraph 1.5.21 explains that the accounting officer is personally accountable for regularity, propriety and value for money in the trust’s financial conduct. Section 3.3 sets out that trusts must seek prior approval from the EFA for transactions that are novel or contentious.