Recommendation 11

In our March 2022 report on the financial sustainability of schools in England, we were concerned that some academy trusts were building large reserves that meant a significant amount of funding was not being spent on educating pupils currently in schools.23 For example, in 2019/20 there were 227 academy trusts with a surplus in excess of £3 million. The academy sector reported a total cumulative surplus of £3.2 billion in 2019/20, up from £2.8 billion in 2018/19. The total aggregate cumulative deficit was £42 million, down from £62 million in the prior year. Of the 110 trusts in cumulative deficit in 2019/20, 88 trusts also reported a cumulative deficit in the prior year.24 The proportion of academy trusts reporting a cumulative deficit fell from 7% in 2017/18 to 4% in 2019/20.25