Recommendation 22

Following our 2019 report on academy accounts and performance, the Department has continued to develop the sector financial information disclosed within the SARA.58 However, as previously reported, we were also concerned about the level of information available to parents.59 In 2018–19 the Department introduced minimum per-pupil funding levels for all schools in England, as part of the national funding formula (NFF). As academy trusts can pool funding, there is no current means for determining whether each academy school has received the guaranteed minimum funding.60 We had previously recommended that the Department should publish annually details of the per-pupil allocation that each academy school has received under the NFF. In its response, the Department disagreed with this recommendation on the grounds that this information is not currently collected, but committed to keeping under review the financial information provided by academy trusts.61 The information on per-pupil funding is therefore not available for parents of children being educated in a MAT.