---
title: Are you on top of the key changes from the 2023 Academy Trust Handbook?
description: Are you on top of the key changes from the 2023 Academy Trust Handbook?
image: https://blog.isbl.org.uk/hubfs/Cooper-Parry.png
---

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# Are you on top of the key changes from the 2023 Academy Trust Handbook?

![](https://blog.isbl.org.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Cooper%20Parry_cZgrnvbU_400x400.jpg?width=85&name=Cooper%20Parry_cZgrnvbU_400x400.jpg)

 Cooper Parry  
January 11, 2024

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Now is a good time to ensure you and your trustees are fully on top of the key changes introduced in the 2023 version of the ATH.

Some of the **key** changes introduced from 1 September 2023 were around financial oversight and related party transactions as follows:

- Trusts now have more discretion regarding the distribution and consideration of monthly management accounts, giving them some greater flexibility in their financial management and oversight.

 

- The threshold for obtaining approval from the ESFA of related party transactions has been increased to £40,000 (from £20,000), which allows trusts extra leeway in managing related party transactions.

 

- With related party transactions, there are also now exemptions from pre-approvals and the “at cost” requirements for transactions with colleges, universities and schools that are sponsors, as well as other state funded schools and academies (but not their trading subsidiaries) as well as exemptions from pre-approval for purchases by a trust with a religious designation of services for ‘essential functions fundamental to their religious character and ethos that can only be provided by their religious authority’.

If you want some more detail on these and other changes in the 2023 ATH, you can find an article written by our dedicated not for profit team [here](https://www.cooperparry.com/news/academy-trust-handbook-2023).

![Cooper Parry](https://blog.isbl.org.uk/hubfs/Cooper%20Parry_cZgrnvbU_400x400.jpg)

Cooper Parry

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