The Academies Accounts Direction tells an academy trust exactly how to prepare its annual report and accounts. The current edition is the 2025 to 2026 Direction, published 25 March 2026, governing any period to 31 August 2026. Like the Academy Trust Handbook, its force is contractual — compliance is a requirement of the funding agreement, not of statute.
What it is and where it sits
DfE takes the Charities SORP and other applicable guidance and translates it into a form relevant to academy trusts. The Direction supplements the Academy Trust Handbook and has the same status, deriving from the funding agreement between each trust and the Secretary of State.
Trusts are both exempt charities and companies limited by guarantee — exempt from Charity Commission registration and regulated instead by the Secretary of State with DfE as agent — and must comply with the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011.
The reporting framework runs in a hierarchy: Companies Act 2006, then financial reporting standards, where "the key standard for academy trusts is FRS 102", then the Charities SORP 2019, then the Direction. HM Treasury guidance for public bodies sits alongside — Managing Public Money, and the guidance on special severance payments.
One correction worth making because it appears in a lot of published summaries: the Government Financial Reporting Manual does not apply to an individual trust's accounts. The FReM applies to the DfE sector consolidated accounts, which are prepared on an IFRS basis as adapted for the public sector. An individual trust reports under FRS 102, the SORP and the Direction.
Which edition applies
This is the most common error in advice written at this time of year. The current Direction is the 2025 to 2026 edition. It must be used to produce accounts for any period to 31 August 2026, and by auditors to audit them; in all other circumstances the expectation is that it is followed.
There is no 2026 to 2027 edition yet. DfE has said that the 2026-27 Direction will comply with the new Charities SORP 2026 and provide further guidance, and the current edition carries a new Annex B specifically to help trusts prepare for that change. So the SORP transition is a live planning item, not a current reporting requirement.
What the annual report must contain
Six components:
- Trustees' report;
- Governance statement;
- Statement of regularity, propriety and compliance;
- Statement of trustees' responsibilities;
- Independent auditor's report on the financial statements;
- Independent reporting accountant's report on regularity.
The trustees' report covers reference and administrative details, structure, governance and management, objectives and activities, a strategic report, a financial review, the reserves policy, funds held as custodian trustee, plans for future periods, policies towards employees and disabled persons, streamlined energy and carbon reporting, and disclosure to the auditor.
The governance statement exists because HM Treasury requires all public bodies to prepare one. Its sections cover scope of responsibility, governance, review of value for money, the purpose of the system of internal control, capacity to handle risk, the risk and control framework, review of effectiveness, and new academies in the period. It must include a conclusion on whether the trust has an adequate and effective framework for governance, risk management and control, together with a review of value for money.
Note that the "purpose of the system of internal control" is a section within the governance statement, not a separate statement of internal control. Listing it as a standalone component is a common slip.
The statement of regularity, propriety and compliance is made by the accounting officer. The definitions of regularity and propriety were updated in this edition to reflect the latest Managing Public Money, and the statement's scope expressly encompasses estates safety and management.
The financial statements comprise a statement of financial activities, a balance sheet, a statement of cash flows and notes, including the accounting policies note.
Two reports, two standards
This is the structural feature that distinguishes academy trust reporting, and it is frequently misunderstood as one engagement.
The audit of the financial statements gives a true and fair opinion under ISA (UK) 700 and the FRC Ethical Standard. It is required by the Companies Act and is also a requirement of the funding agreement.
The regularity report is separate. It must be produced by a reporting accountant, who must be the same person as the external auditor. Critically, it is a limited assurance engagement under ISAE (UK) 3000, not an audit — and the reporting accountant does not express a positive opinion. The conclusion is negative in form: that nothing has come to their attention to suggest that, in all material respects, expenditure and income has not been applied to purposes intended by Parliament and that the financial transactions do not conform to the authorities governing them.
There is a further wrinkle in who engages whom. Under the pre-agreed terms of engagement, it is the Secretary of State for Education who engages the reporting accountant to perform the regularity engagement in connection with the trust — not the trust itself.
The model accounts
A separate model set of accounts, commonly called the Coketown model, supports the Direction. It has the same contractual status, and compliance with both is a requirement of the funding agreement. It is the practical starting point for preparation rather than an illustration to be adapted loosely.
The deadlines for 2025/26
- 31 December 2026 — submit audited accounts, the external auditor's findings report and the annual internal scrutiny report to DfE;
- 31 January 2027 — publish the full accounts on the trust's website;
- 31 May 2027 — file with Companies House, nine months after the 31 August year end. Companies House levies a penalty of at least £150 for late filing;
- 26 January 2027 — the academies accounts return for 2025/26.
New trusts must change their accounting reference date at Companies House to 31 August. And note that the 31 December date is a DfE and funding-agreement deadline rather than a statutory filing deadline — which does not make it less binding, but does mean the consequences are contractual.
Our guide to the Academy Trust Handbook covers the delegated authority limits and related party rules that the regularity conclusion tests against, and the DfE chart of accounts is what makes the accounts return tractable.
Acumon audits and reports on academy trusts through education audit and school and academy accounting, with internal scrutiny programmes alongside. If your year end is 31 August 2026, the SORP 2026 transition in Annex B is the thing to read before next year's accounts are planned.