Academy Accounts Direction 2025/2026

In welcome news trusts will no longer need to disclose information on trade union facility time within their trustees’ report. If you’re a Price Bailey client then this means one less audit schedule to consider and complete.

The AAD includes updated wording relating to SECR. Clarification has been added that SECR disclosures are only required when a trust meets the definition of a large company for two consecutive years. These limits are then clarified in the AAD but are driven by The Companies and LLP Regulations 2018 and not the DfE. If your trust now meets these requirements for 25/26, we recommend consulting with your auditors in advance of the audit.

The AAD now explicitly clarifies that payments in lieu of notice (PILON) must be included as part of restructuring costs. This clarification removes ambiguity and ensures consistency in how staff‑related exit costs are presented within the financial statements.

Further guidance has been added on the disclosure of benefits for higher‑paid staff (over £60k). The AAD requires separate disclosure of part time staff, or staff who worked for only part of the year, whose annualised salary exceeds £60k as a text note in the accounts.

Does this mean as a trust you need to prepare and provide more information? Well, the good news for Price Bailey external audit clients is no. Our audit schedules already require you to enter the Full Time Equivalent of staff to factor in both part time staff and joiners/leavers. This information was already needed for the Accounts Return. Therefore, if engaged to prepare accounts, we will take this information and make the required disclosures. We will cover this in more detail during our annual external audit preparation webinar.

The AAD has included the definition of key management personnel and provided further clarification around employee benefits to key management personnel.

KMP refers to: “those persons having authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the academy trust, directly or indirectly”.

Where remuneration for a member of KMP is accrued in the current accounting period or has been accrued in previous accounting periods, there are additional requirements which require the value of the remuneration accrued to be disclosed separately with an explanation note.

The AAD now makes clear that related party transaction disclosure requirements apply where the principal or chief executive is also a trustee.

This clarification reinforces the expectation that dual‑role individuals are fully captured within related party disclosures.

The definitions of regularity and propriety have been updated to align with the latest edition of Managing Public Money (June 2025).

Minor editorial amendments have been made in relation to site improvements at church academy trusts. These changes do not alter accounting requirements but clarify existing guidance.