News Financial self-assessment check for academies to become mandatory

Academy trusts will be required to complete an annual finance check-up as part of the government’s push to level up accountability across all school types.

The self-assessment tool helps trusts check the strength of their financial and resource management systems. The move to make it mandatory, at the end of this academic year, will ensure “there is no area in which we are requiring a weaker accountability of academies than of maintained schools”, the government said.

The announcement was made as part of the launch of the Department for Education’s consultation on accountability in maintained schools, and comes after a stinging critique on the self-evaluation of academy trusts from Ofsted earlier this week.