Academy Trust Handbook 2026: What the New Procurement Requirements Mean for Schools

The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 came into effect on 1 October 2026, bringing a number of important changes for academy trusts.

For school business leaders, CFOs and those responsible for procurement, one area is particularly significant: trusts are expected to demonstrate increasingly clearly how purchasing decisions are made, how value for money is achieved and how those decisions are recorded.

The new Handbook also states that academy trusts must consider Department for Education purchasing opportunities when making purchasing decisions and record their decision-making.

For many schools, that makes having good visibility of contracts, renewal dates and procurement activity more important than ever.

What does the Academy Trust Handbook require?

The Handbook requires academy trusts to ensure that spending:

• is for its intended purpose
• demonstrates proper use of public funds
• represents value for money
• follows the trust’s agreed delegation and approval processes
• incorporates appropriate competitive procurement
• complies with relevant procurement legislation and thresholds
• includes appropriate supplier due diligence

The 2026 Handbook also places additional emphasis on considering DfE purchasing opportunities and maintaining a record of how procurement decisions were reached.

For schools, the challenge is therefore not simply making a good purchasing decision.

It is increasingly about being able to show why that decision was made.

Can you evidence your procurement decisions?

Most schools already undertake a significant amount of work before appointing or renewing a supplier.

The problem is that the evidence behind those decisions can often be spread across:

• spreadsheets
• emails
• individual staff members
• quotation documents
• supplier websites
• historic records
• separate contract registers

That can make seemingly simple questions difficult to answer.

For example:

When does this contract expire?

What is the notice period?

Did we review alternative suppliers?

How does the current price compare with the wider market?

Did we consider an appropriate DfE purchasing route?

What due diligence was carried out?

Why was this supplier selected?

Having those answers available becomes increasingly important where a school or trust needs to demonstrate effective financial governance.

Start with better visibility of your contracts

One of the simplest ways to improve procurement is to know what contracts you already have and when they are due to renew.

If a school only becomes aware of a contract shortly before renewal, there may be very little time to properly review the service, benchmark costs or explore alternatives.

Good contract management provides enough notice to:

• review whether the service is still required
• understand current expenditure
• identify upcoming notice periods
• consider relevant DfE purchasing opportunities
• investigate alternative suppliers
• benchmark costs
• carry out due diligence
• follow the correct procurement process

In many cases, better procurement starts months before the actual buying decision.

Demonstrating value for money

The Handbook continues to place value for money at the heart of academy trust spending.

Importantly, value for money does not simply mean choosing the cheapest supplier.

Schools need to consider cost alongside factors such as quality, suitability, service, contractual terms and long-term value.

Being able to compare suppliers and understand what other schools are paying can provide valuable context when reviewing an existing contract or purchasing a new service.

This is one of the areas where education-specific procurement tools are becoming increasingly useful.

Recording why a decision was made

One of the most notable aspects of the 2026 Handbook is the requirement for academy trusts to record their decision-making when considering DfE purchasing opportunities.

This highlights a broader point for school procurement.

A good purchasing process should leave behind a clear record.

That could include:

• the requirement being purchased
• suppliers considered
• quotations received
• relevant DfE routes considered
• market comparisons
• due diligence undertaken
• approval received
• reasons for the final decision

Creating that record at the time of procurement is significantly easier than trying to reconstruct it later.

How technology can help

Many schools still manage contracts and procurement activity across several different systems.

Increasingly, platforms are being developed to bring more of that information together.

One example is The Education Marketplace (TEM), which has been created specifically for schools.

TEM allows schools to manage contracts and renewal dates while also helping them discover and compare education suppliers.

The aim is to connect different stages of the procurement journey:

Contract → Renewal → Review → Compare → Supplier decision → New contract

Schools can use the platform to:

• keep a central record of contracts
• receive reminders about upcoming renewals
• identify opportunities to review existing suppliers
• discover alternative education suppliers
• compare pricing and options
• support supplier due diligence
• create a clearer record around procurement decisions

TEM does not replace a trust’s own procurement policy or statutory procurement obligations, but it can help schools organise and evidence much of the information required to make better-informed decisions.

Specific procurement routes still matter

Academy trusts should also be aware that certain areas of expenditure have specific requirements or DfE purchasing arrangements attached to them.

The 2026 Handbook includes requirements relating to areas including:

• supply staffing
• energy procurement
• management information systems

Schools should therefore always check whether a specific purchasing route is required before progressing a procurement exercise.

This is another reason why planning renewals early is important.

If schools know well in advance that a major contract is approaching renewal, they have more time to understand the relevant requirements and follow the appropriate process.

Is your contract management ready?

For many schools, compliance issues do not begin with the procurement itself.

They begin much earlier because contract information is incomplete, renewal dates are missed or responsibility for contracts is unclear.

A useful first step is therefore to assess how effectively contracts are currently being managed.

The Education Marketplace offers a free Contract Health Check which takes just a few minutes to complete and provides schools with a personalised report highlighting strengths, potential gaps and practical recommendations.

Schools can also create a free TEM account to start managing contracts and exploring suppliers.

The bigger picture

The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 reinforces a direction that school procurement has been moving towards for some time.

It is no longer enough simply to buy well.

Schools increasingly need to be able to demonstrate:

what they bought, why they bought it, what alternatives they considered and why the final decision represented good use of public money.

For school business leaders, better contract visibility and stronger procurement records can make that process considerably easier.

And, perhaps just as importantly, they can help schools spend less time searching through spreadsheets and emails when the evidence is eventually needed.

This article is intended as general information for schools and academy trusts and should not be treated as legal or procurement advice. Trusts should refer to the Academy Trust Handbook, relevant legislation and their own financial and procurement policies when making purchasing decisions.

The author

Mike Reardon

Having been a governor and volunteer of a small rurally isolated primary school in Shropshire since he left it in 2002, Mike has made it his mission to enable collaboration and sharing of best practice within schools, without costing them anything

https://www.nexus-education.com/