Education Audit

Education finance teams juggle short reporting windows, regularity requirements and multiple funders. We plan your audit backwards from the statutory deadlines, test what the Department for Education actually cares about, and give governors and trustees clear, jargon-free reporting they can act on.

Academy Trust Audits and the DfE Timetable

Academy trusts prepare accounts to 31 August and must submit audited financial statements — together with the auditor's management letter and the internal scrutiny annual summary — to the Department for Education by 31 December, then file at Companies House. Accounts must follow the Academies Accounts Direction and the Academy Trust Handbook, with the separate accounts return following on the DfE's timetable.

Note the machinery change: the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025 and its functions transferred to the DfE, so the current Handbook, Accounts Direction and auditor framework now reference the DfE throughout. We keep trusts current on each year's changes so nothing in your submission is out of date.

Regularity Assurance

Alongside the true-and-fair audit opinion, academy trusts need a regularity assurance conclusion — an engagement confirming that public funds have been applied for the purposes intended by Parliament and in line with the Academy Trust Handbook's requirements. We test the areas that typically trip trusts up: procurement and tendering, related party transactions and the DfE approval regime, executive pay, write-offs and severance payments, and the internal scrutiny programme that supports the accounting officer's statement.

Independent Schools

Most independent schools are charitable companies, so charity audit thresholds and the Charities SORP apply alongside company law. Audit focus areas include fee income recognition (including fees in advance schemes and deposits), bursaries and scholarship funds, restricted funds and endowments, and — since VAT was applied to private school fees from January 2025 — VAT accounting and its knock-on effects on budgets, pupil-number assumptions and going concern. We combine school audit experience with integrated VAT and tax advice, which few audit-only teams can offer.

Colleges, Higher Education and Training Providers

Further education and sixth-form colleges report under their own accounts direction with funding-body assurance requirements; higher education providers registered with the Office for Students face ongoing conditions of registration including financial sustainability reporting. Independent training providers claiming apprenticeship and adult skills funding must evidence compliance with funding rules, subcontracting controls and achievement data supporting income recognition. We audit deferred and clawback-prone funding streams with the scepticism funders expect — and the pragmatism your team needs.

Pensions in Education

Education employers typically participate in the Teachers' Pension Scheme and, for support staff, the Local Government Pension Scheme. LGPS participation brings defined benefit accounting under FRS 102 onto your balance sheet, with actuarial assumptions to challenge and volatile movements to explain to governors. We handle both the accounting and the audit evidence, liaising directly with actuaries where needed.

Why Acumon for Education Audits

Deep education and charity sector experience, a deadline-first approach that treats 31 December as immovable, hybrid on-site and remote fieldwork that respects term-time pressures, and integrated VAT, tax and payroll advice. You get clear findings, a practical management letter, and a team that answers the phone between audits.

What You Get With Acumon

• Academy trust audits under the Academies Accounts Direction and Academy Trust Handbook
• Audited accounts, management letter and internal scrutiny summary to the DfE by 31 December
• Regularity assurance: procurement, related parties, executive pay and severance
• Independent school audits: fee income, fees in advance, bursaries and VAT on fees
• FE colleges, OfS-registered higher education providers and training providers
• Teachers' Pension Scheme and LGPS (FRS 102 defined benefit) accounting support
• Term-time-aware fieldwork with hybrid remote delivery

Why Acumon for Education Audit?

• ICAEW-registered and FRC-authorised audit firm
• Charity and education sector audit experience across academy trusts, schools and training providers
• Integrated VAT, tax and payroll advice alongside audit
• 90+ UK-based staff with hybrid remote delivery
• Uses the Inflo digital audit platform and a specialist client audit portal

Get a Fixed-Fee Quote

Tell us what you need and we'll come back within one business day with a clear scope and a fixed price — no hourly-rate surprises. Call 020 8567 3451 or use the form and we'll be in touch.