Academy Trusts: What information needs to be published on the academy website?

In this article we review what information needs to be published on the academy website. We often find during our year end statutory audit work, that academy trusts fail to meet all the required ‘musts’ especially in relation to governance and financial information. Below we summarise what ‘must’ be published on the website and what the DfE also recommends ‘should’ be published.

Please note:

Academy trust refers to the main group trust website if you’re a MAT, or your main website if you’re a single academy trust.
Academies refers to all individual schools.

What ‘must‘ academies publish?

Must requirement	Further information
Admission arrangements	Arrangements to comply with the school admissions code & appeals code (does not apply to special academies, alternative provision settings or stand-alone 16 to 19 institutions, although recommended for 16 to 19 academies to publish their admission arrangements). See DfE guidance for more detail guidance.
Audited annual report and accounts (latest audited year-end)	The latest audited accounts must be published on the academy trust website by 31 January each year.
Careers programme information	Secondary academies and 16 to 19 academies must publish a policy statement to comply with section 42B of the Education Act 1997, known as the ‘provider access legislation’.
Complaints policy	All academies (with the exception of 16-19 academies) must have a complaints procedure, which must be available to parents and carers of children attending. Schools must publish the details of any arrangements for handling complaints from parents and carers about the support they provide for pupils with special educational needs (SEN).
Contact details (SENCO)	Mainstream academies must publish the name and contact details of their SENCO in their SEN information report (see below).
Curriculum	Academies must publish their policy on relationships education or relationships and sex education.
Executive pay	Academy trusts must publish the number of employees whose salary and related benefits exceeded £100,000 during the previous academic year ended 31 August. Must be presented in an easily accessible form and in £10k bandings (see Academy Trust Handbook 2024).
Governance	Academy trusts must publish the following in an easily accessible format on their website: memorandum of association articles of association the names of trust members and academy trustees the relevant business and financial interests of members, trustees, local governors and accounting officers funding agreement any supplemental funding agreement up-to-date details of governance arrangements (see Academy Trust Handbook 2024).
Gender pay gap reporting	If the academy trust has more than 250 employees (headcount basis), then it must publish a copy of its gender pay report in a prominent place on the website within one year of the ‘snapshot date’ which is 31 March.
Notice to Improve (NtI)	The DfE will notify the academy trust of the date on which the DfE has published the NtI. The trust must then publish the NtI on its own website within 14 days and retain it on the website until the NtI is lifted by the DfE.
PE and sport premium	Academies that receive PE and sport premium funding must publish, by 31 July each year, a sport premium statement. By 31 July each year, academies must also publish the percentage of pupils in year 6 who have met the national curriculum.
Public sector equality duty	Academies must publish details of how they comply with the public sector equality duty, updating this every year and their equality objectives, updating these at least every 4 years. The Equality Act 2010: advice for schools provides guidance on how an academy school can show it has complied.
Pupil premium	Academies that receive pupil premium funding must publish a strategy statement on their school website by 31 December each year. Academies must publish their statement in the DfE template provided on the pupil premium guidance page.
SEND information (SEN information report)	Academies must publish an SEN information report. Any changes to the information occurring during the year should be updated as soon as possible.
Whistleblowing	Academy trusts must publish details of their whistleblowing procedure.

What ‘should’ academies publish?

Audited annual report and accounts

It is recommended that academy trusts should retain accounts in respect of at least the previous two years on their website.

Behaviour policy

Academies should publish their behaviour policy, including their anti-bullying strategy.

Board diversity

DfE encourages academy trusts to publish easily accessible data about the diversity of their board and any associated committees.

Careers programme information

Secondary academies and 16 to 19 academies should publish information about how they deliver careers guidance to years 7 to 13, as appropriate to their setting and required by their funding or accountability agreement.

Charging and remissions policies

Academies should publish charging policy (giving details of activities for which they will charge parents and carers) & remissions policy (giving details of the circumstances in which they will wholly or partly waive any charge they would otherwise expect parents and carers to pay).

Energy and Carbon Reporting

If your academy trust is a ‘large’ company and reports on energy and carbon information within its annual audited accounts and trustees’ report, then the ESFA encourages trusts to reproduce the disclosures from their accounts in a readily accessible format on their website before 31 March each year.

General contact details

These should be stated on the school website.

Curriculum

All academies should publish the content of the curriculum in each academic year for every subject. Academies with 16 to 19 provision should also publish information on how their curriculum meets the 16 to 19 study programme requirements.

Ethos and values

Academies should publish a statement setting out ethos and values.

Ofsted reports

Academies should publish either a copy of their most recent Ofsted report, or link to the report on the Ofsted website.

Remote education

Academies should publish information about their remote education provision.

School opening hours & school uniform

These should be stated on the school website.

Test, exam and assessment results

All academies should publish a link to the ‘compare school and college performance service’ and to their own performance measures page. See DfE guidance for more detail guidance on key stages.

We can help you

Should you require any further advice or have any questions for the team, please contact one of our academies experts who can assist you.

For more detailed information, please refer to the DFE guidance page here. Reporting requirements correct as of January 2025.

We always recommend that you seek advice from a suitably qualified adviser before taking any action. The information in this article only serves as a guide and no responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining from action as a result of this material can be accepted by the authors or the firm.