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New DfE Governance Guides and Trust Handbook Published

News
25/06/2025

The Department for Education (DfE) has today released a series of important guidance for those governing:

The annual update to the Trust Handbook provides essential guidance for academy trusts on financial management, governance, and accountability. For all trusts, compliance with the handbook is a condition of their funding agreement; therefore, it remains one of the most important documents that trust boards need to consult.

Meanwhile, the Department’s Governance Guides are the closest thing to a “one-stop shop” for the government’s governance expectations and best practice, with separate versions for the maintained and trust sectors. Our briefings outline which board members and employees should review these important documents.

This year’s updates are relatively minimal, but it is important that governance professionals and those governing read our briefings to understand what has changed and where expectations have been re-emphasised.

NGA was pleased to contribute to this edition of the Trust Handbook and its continued development as part of the Academies Finance and Assurance Working Group. We are also grateful for the opportunity to comment on the other new resources during the drafting stage, and for the new inclusion of additional NGA resources in the Governance Guides, including those on procurement and our board reporting templates.

To understand what has changed, members can read our briefings now:

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