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Corporate report

Academy trusts: findings from DfE's assurance work

Findings from DfE's assurance work relating to the financial management and governance of the academies sector.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
4 March 2019
Last updated:
11 September 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added ‘Common issues identified from DfE’s assurance work: 2025 to 2026’.

  2. Added 'Common issues identified from DfE's assurance work in 2024 to 2025'. Moved 'Common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work' for 2021 to 2022, 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 to the National Archives and added a link to the page.

  3. Added 'Common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work in 2023 to 2024'. Removed historical versions.

  4. We have published the common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work in 2022 to 2023.

  5. We have published the common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work in 2021 to 2022.

  6. We have updated this page to add 'Common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work in 2020 to 2021'.

  7. Added 'Common themes arising from ESFA's assurance work in 2019 to 2020' HTML attachment.

  8. Added briefing report for 2018 to 2019.

  9. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Common issues identified from DfE's assurance work: 2025 to 2026

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Details

The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for providing assurance in respect of the financial management and governance of the academies sector and academies’ use of public funds.

This report covers assurance work relating to the financial management and governance of the academies sector in 2025 to 2026. It highlights common issues to help the sector to improve the quality of financial governance.

It is for:

  • academy trust accounting officers
  • finance staff
  • trustees
  • auditors of academy trust accounts

You can find previous versions of this report in the The National Archives under ‘Common themes arising from ESFA’s assurance work’ for the years:

  • 2024 to 2025
  • 2023 to 2024
  • 2022 to 2023

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