Academy trusts with more than 49 full time equivalent employees throughout any 7 months within the reporting period have, for a number of years, been required to disclose certain information in their trustees' report.
This includes the number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period and the percentage of their time spent on facility time.
The provisions of the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 require all public sector education settings to report their data annually outside of the accounts, and this is a deadline which we have found many academy trusts are not aware of. The deadline for 2023 is approaching on 31 July 2023.
Further guidance can be found here.
The reporting period is 1 April to 31 March and so is not aligned to the academy September – August financial year. The model accounts published with the Accounts Direction does actually suggest the information published in the financial statements can cover the same period starting 1 April each year, which means there is no need to recalculate the data for a different period for disclosure in the year end accounts.
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