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Schools, academy trusts, and FOIA: who is covered?
Schools in England are subject to FOIA in two ways. Maintained schools (funded by local authorities) are covered as LA-maintained schools. Academy trusts — independent schools funded directly by central government — are separately listed in Schedule 1 of FOIA 2000 following the Academies Act 2010. Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are a single legal entity covering multiple schools; an FOI to the MAT is an FOI that applies to the entire trust and all the schools within it.
Free schools, studio schools, and university technical colleges are all academy trusts and therefore all subject to FOIA. Sixth-form colleges incorporated under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 are also public authorities. Independent fee-paying schools that receive no public funding are not subject to FOIA.
Before filing, always check the DfE’s Compare School Performance website, published Ofsted inspection reports, and — for academy trusts — the audited financial statements published by the ESFA on gov.uk. The financial statements in particular contain CEO pay, related party transactions, and governance information that does not require an FOI.
Publicly available data to check before filing
- Compare School Performance (gov.uk) — attainment, progress, absence rates, and exclusion rates by school
- Ofsted inspection reports (ofsted.gov.uk) — inspection findings including safeguarding judgements
- ESFA financial returns (gov.uk) — audited academy trust accounts including CEO pay and related party transactions
- DfE exclusions data (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk) — national and school-level exclusions statistics
- SEND national statistics (DfE) — EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) data by local area
- Governance information (get-information-about-schools.service.gov.uk) — trust governance, academy order dates, and school structure
High-value school and trust FOI topics
- 1MAT CEO and executive pay: full remuneration packages including pension and bonuses, beyond what is in the published accounts.
- 2Pupil exclusions: fixed-term and permanent exclusions per term, managed moves, and off-roll figures — broken down by year group or reason.
- 3Pupil attendance and attainment data below the published national level — by form group, year, or specific department.
- 4SEND provision: number of pupils with EHCPs, waiting times for assessments, rate of tribunal challenges to EHCP decisions.
- 5Complaints: total formal complaints received, outcomes, and average resolution time.
- 6Governance: minutes of governors' meetings covering financial decisions, CEO remuneration, or exclusion appeals.
- 7Safeguarding: aggregate number of referrals to children's services, and number of multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) referrals.
- 8Sponsored academy financial transfers: money transferred between connected entities (a key related party transaction flag).
- 9Staff disciplinary and HR data: number of gross misconduct dismissals by year; number of capability procedures initiated.
- 10IT and technology contracts: spend on multi-year platform contracts above £25,000 with named suppliers.
Red flags in a school or trust refusal
- S.40 personal data cited for aggregate exclusion counts — aggregate statistics are not personal data.
- S.12 cost limit cited for a request for data that clearly already exists in management information systems.
- A MAT claiming the FOI only applies to one school when the FOI was sent to the trust as a whole.
- The trust claiming it is not a public authority — academy trusts have been in Schedule 1 since the Academies Act 2010.
- A refusal to confirm or deny holding information about a safeguarding incident without citing a specific statutory basis.
- CEO pay withheld under s.40 when the published accounts already contain the band — you are entitled to the same granularity already published.
- Governors' meeting minutes withheld in their entirety without a document-by-document assessment of what can be redacted and released.
School and trust FOI request checklist
- Checked DfE Compare School Performance data before filing.
- Downloaded and read the latest ESFA-published audited accounts for the trust.
- Checked the Ofsted report for the school or all schools in the MAT.
- Identified whether to send the FOI to the maintained school, the academy trust, or the local authority (for LA-maintained schools).
- For MATs: addressed the FOI to the trust and confirmed it covers all schools in the trust.
- Specified aggregate data (counts, totals) rather than individual pupil or staff records.
- Specified a school year or academic year as the date range to match school reporting cycles.
- Checked DfE exclusions published data to identify the sub-trust or sub-school level granularity not yet published.
- Set a 20-working-day deadline reminder.
- If refused on s.40 for aggregate statistics: prepared a challenge citing ICO guidance that aggregate data is not personal data.
Build your school or trust FOI request
Our FOI Request Builder includes education sector templates for maintained schools, academy trusts, and MATs — covering exclusions, SEND, and CEO pay.
Open FOI Request BuilderCommon mistakes
- Asking for CEO pay data without first reading the publicly filed ESFA accounts — you may already have it.
- Filing the FOI to an individual school within a MAT rather than to the trust itself — the trust is the public authority.
- Expecting identifiable pupil data on exclusions — ask for aggregate counts, not named individuals.
- Not specifying a date range — broad requests will hit the cost limit and be refused.
- Forgetting that DfE already publishes school-level exclusions data at the national level — your FOI should target what is not already published.
- Treating a free school or studio school as if it is not subject to FOIA — it is, as an academy trust.
- Accepting a blanket s.40 refusal on CEO pay when the published accounts already contain the information in bands.
Related guides
University FOI Requests
HE sector data: VC pay, complaints, foreign donations, and research integrity.
Local Authority FOI Requests
LA-maintained schools and council-held children's services data.
Data Journalism for Beginners
How to clean and analyse DfE published data tables and ESFA accounts.
FOI Request Builder
Education sector templates for schools, trusts, and MATs.
Primary sources
- DfE — Compare School Performance (gov.uk)
- Ofsted — school inspection reports (ofsted.gov.uk)
- ESFA — academy trust financial returns and accounts (gov.uk)
- DfE — exclusions national statistics (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
- Get Information About Schools — trust and governance data (gov.uk)
- Academies Act 2010 — academy trust status (legislation.gov.uk)
- ICO — s.40 personal data guidance for schools (ico.org.uk)
Frequently asked questions
Are academy trusts subject to FOIA?
Yes. Academy trusts — including free schools, studio schools, and university technical colleges — are listed as public authorities in Schedule 1 to FOIA 2000 (as amended by the Academies Act 2010). Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are a single legal entity covering multiple schools; an FOI to the MAT covers all its schools. Maintained schools (local authority-funded) are also subject to FOIA through their status as Local Authority-maintained schools. Independent schools that do not receive public funding are not subject to FOIA.
How do I get data on CEO pay for a multi-academy trust?
MAT CEOs are often paid significantly more than headteachers. Via FOI you can request: total remuneration (salary, bonuses, pension, and benefits) for the CEO and other senior leaders above a threshold; the composition and process of the remuneration committee; any performance-related elements of the pay. You should also check the trust's published audited accounts, which are filed with Companies House and published on the ESFA (Education and Skills Funding Agency) section of gov.uk — the accounts contain senior pay disclosures. Cross-referencing FOI responses with the published accounts is a useful verification step.
Can I get data on pupil exclusions and managed moves via FOI?
DfE publishes national exclusions statistics annually, and the underlying school-level data is in the underlying data tables. But you can get more granular or current data via FOI: the number of fixed-term and permanent exclusions per term or year; the number of "managed moves" (informal off-rolls transfers); the number of pupils removed from the roll for other reasons; exclusions broken down by reason, year group, or protected characteristic. Headteachers sometimes claim s.40 (personal data) for exclusions data involving small numbers — argue that aggregate counts are not personal data.
What are ESFA academy financial returns and can I access them?
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) requires all academy trusts to submit audited financial statements annually. These are published on gov.uk and are freely available without any FOI needed. They contain: trust income and expenditure by category; surplus/deficit; CEO and senior leader pay bands; related party transactions (financial transfers between the trust and connected entities); and the auditor's report. Related party transactions are a particularly high-value area — they show when a trust is paying money to organisations controlled by its own governors or senior leaders.
What safeguarding data can I obtain from a school or MAT via FOI?
This is a sensitive area and schools and MATs are cautious about disclosure. You can legitimately request: the number of safeguarding referrals made to children's services in a given year (aggregate, not case-specific); whether the school has a Designated Safeguarding Lead in post; the number of occasions when a DBS-checked adult was not present with pupils (if the school tracks this); any Ofsted findings relating to safeguarding (which are published on the Ofsted website). You cannot expect personal details of individual cases — s.40 applies properly here. The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) process is a separate route for information about staff misconduct allegations.