Key items you need to publish according to ESFA's Academies Financial Handbook 2020

With the requirement to have the 31 August 2020 annual accounts published on your website by 28 February 2021 and reviewing issues we raised across our management letters, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remind you of some of the other key items that are required to be published on the Trust’s website as per the ESFA’s Academies Financial Handbook 2020;

2.32 The trust must publish on its website in a separate readily accessible form the number of employees whose benefits exceeded £100k, in £10k bandings, as an extract from the disclosure in its financial statements for the previous year ended 31 August. Benefits for this purpose include salary, other taxable benefits and termination payments, but not the trust’s pension costs.

This information will need to be published in a separate document or page on the website. This way, it will be clearly distinguished from the same information, which is also presented in the audited financial statements.

2.33 The trust is reminded of requirements under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 for organisations with 250 or more employees to publish information on their website and the government’s reporting website about the gender pay gap in their organisation.

In 2020, the requirement to publish a gender pay gap report was waived for all qualifying Trusts. There has been no such luxury in 2021, and therefore, you should make sure that you upload the necessary information via this link to the gov.uk website before the 30 March 2021 deadline.

As a reminder, the information you need to report is:

1. percentage of men and women in each hourly pay quarter
2. mean (average) gender pay gap using hourly pay
3. median gender pay gap using hourly pay
4. percentage of men and women receiving bonus pay
5. mean (average) gender pay gap using bonus pay
6. median gender pay gap using bonus pay

2.50 The trust must provide details of its governance arrangements in the governance statement published with its annual accounts, including what the board has delegated to committees and, in trusts with multiple academies, to local governing bodies. The trust must also publish on its website up-to-date details of its governance arrangements in a readily accessible format, including:

• the structure and remit of the trust’s members, the board of trustees, committees and local governing bodies (the trust’s scheme of delegation for governance functions), and the full names of the chair of each
• for each of the trust’s members serving at any point over the past 12 months, their full names, date of appointment, the date they stepped down (where applicable), and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions
• for each trustee and local governor serving at any point over the past 12 months, their full names, date of appointment, the term of office, the date they stepped down (where applicable), who appointed them, and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions. If the accounting officer is not a trustee, their business and pecuniary interests must still be published
• for each trustee, their attendance records at board and committee meetings over the last academic year
• for each local governor, their attendance records at local governing body meetings over the previous academic year.

4.4 The audited report and accounts must be published on the trust’s website by 28 February (ESFA updated the deadline from the original published date of 31 January 2021)

5.47 Trusts must publish on their websites relevant business and pecuniary interests of members, trustees, local governors and accounting officers. Trusts have discretion over the publication of interests of other individuals named on the register.

If you need advice on what qualifies as a relevant business and pecuniary interest, get in touch with us via [email protected] or using the form below.