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Guidance

Due diligence in academies and maintained schools

Best practice guidance for governing bodies of maintained schools, local authorities and academy trusts.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education and Education and Skills Funding Agency
Published:
28 February 2019
Last updated:
11 May 2021
Show all updates

  1. We have updated this page with some minor changes and improvements, and to change it to an ESFA page.

  2. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Due diligence: best practice guide for maintained schools, local authorities and academy trusts

HTML

Annex 1 - due diligence suggested stage 1 template

ODT, 45.4 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Annex 2 - due diligence land and buildings checklist

ODT, 43.5 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Details

Due diligence can be defined as the process of making sure all stakeholders understand the information needed to enable them to make fully informed decisions about transferring a school into a new academy trust.

Information can include:

  • costs
  • risks
  • benefits
  • assets
  • liabilities

The importance of rigorous due diligence was highlighted in the Public Accounts Committee’s report about converting schools to academies.

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