Academy funding agreements are moving off GOV.UK. Here is where to look
What happened
From September 2026, the Department for Education has stopped publishing academy funding agreements on GOV.UK. The change was confirmed in the department's update to academies on 2 September 2026. Instead, academy trusts are now required to publish redacted versions of their own funding agreements on their own websites. 'Redacted' means certain details are blacked out or removed, in this case personal information such as the names and signatures of the people who signed the document. If that sounds like a small piece of administrative housekeeping, it partly is. But it changes where a particular kind of public document lives, and that is worth knowing about if you have ever needed to look one up. So what is a funding agreement? It is the contract between an academy trust and the Secretary of State for Education. It sets out the terms on which the trust runs its school or schools, and the basis on which it receives public money. It covers things like admissions arrangements, what happens if standards fall, and the conditions the trust has to meet. Around eight in ten secondary schools in England, and a substantial share of primaries, are academies. So these agreements govern the education of a very large number of children. The department has been clear that the legal standing of the agreements is not changing. What is changing is who publishes them and where they can be found.
Why this matters
Most parents will go their whole lives without reading a funding agreement, and that is entirely reasonable. But these documents matter in specific situations, and those situations tend to be stressful ones. If you are challenging an admissions decision, the funding agreement may set out the arrangements the trust has to follow. If you are involved in a dispute about exclusions, or about how a school is being run, the agreement can be relevant. Governors, journalists, researchers and campaigners use them too. The practical concern with a change like this is fragmentation. When documents sit in one place on GOV.UK, they are relatively easy to find and compare. When they are spread across thousands of individual school websites, finding a particular one depends on each trust publishing it clearly and keeping the link working. School websites vary enormously in how well they are organised. Anyone who has tried to find a specific policy document on one will know this. On the other hand, there is a reasonable argument for the change. Publishing redacted versions removes personal information about individuals who signed the documents, which is a legitimate data protection concern. Trusts are already required to publish a range of information on their websites, so this fits an existing pattern. The honest position is that this is a reasonable administrative decision with a real practical downside for people who need to find these documents. Both things can be true.
What the evidence actually says
It is worth being precise about the scope of this change, because it would be easy to overstate it. This does not reduce the legal force of funding agreements. The department has explicitly said the change does not alter the agreements' legal standing. A trust's obligations are exactly what they were. It does not make funding agreements secret. They remain documents that trusts are required to publish. The requirement has moved rather than disappeared. It does not affect school funding levels, admissions rules, or anything about how your child is taught. If you have seen this described as a cut or a loss of rights, that is not what has happened. What it does do is shift responsibility for publication from a central government website to individual trusts. Whether that works well in practice depends entirely on how consistently trusts comply, and that is something that can only be judged over time. It has not been tested yet. It is also worth noting what this change sits alongside. The same 2 September update reminded academy trusts of other deadlines, including the Budget Forecast Return, which trusts must submit by 24 September 2026. These are the routine mechanics of running publicly funded schools, and they rarely make the news. One thing to keep in mind if you go looking for a document and cannot find it: absence from a website is not proof of wrongdoing. It may simply be a website that needs updating. Asking is usually more productive than assuming.
Practical advice
If you need to find an academy's funding agreement, here is how to go about it. Start with the trust's own website rather than the school's. Multi-academy trusts often keep governance documents at trust level. Look for sections labelled 'governance', 'policies', 'statutory information' or 'about us'. If you cannot find it, ask. Contact the trust directly and ask where the redacted funding agreement is published. Trusts are required to publish it, so this is a fair question. If you still get nowhere, you can make a Freedom of Information request. Academy trusts are subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Requests should be in writing and there is normally a 20 working day response time. For admissions questions specifically, start with the admissions authority and your local council. The funding agreement is background; the admissions arrangements and appeals process are what you usually need first. If your concern is about how a school is being run, there is an established route: raise it with the school, then the trust, then the Department for Education if it remains unresolved. Ofsted handles certain concerns but not individual complaints. Keep copies of documents you rely on. If something matters to your case, save a copy rather than trusting a link to still work later. For governors and trustees reading this: check now whether your trust's redacted agreement is published and easy to find, rather than waiting for someone to ask.
What to know
From September 2026, the Department for Education no longer publishes academy funding agreements on GOV.UK, as confirmed in its academies update of 2 September 2026. Academy trusts must now publish redacted versions on their own websites, with personal details such as signatories removed for data protection reasons. The legal standing of the agreements is unchanged, and this does not affect funding, admissions rules or teaching. A funding agreement is the contract between a trust and the Secretary of State setting out how the school is run and funded. To find one, look on the trust's website under governance or statutory information, ask the trust directly, or make a Freedom of Information request. Academy trusts were also reminded that the Budget Forecast Return is due by 24 September 2026. Sources: GOV.UK, 'DfE Update academies: 2 September 2026', https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-update-2-september-2026/dfe-update-academies-2-september-2026 | GOV.UK, 'DfE Update 2 September 2026', https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-update-2-september-2026 | GOV.UK, Department for Education, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education This article is for general information about school governance in England and does not constitute legal advice. If you are involved in a dispute about admissions, exclusions or school provision, consider seeking advice from your local council, a specialist education advice charity or a qualified legal adviser.
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