Academies Update Conference
With academies under increased scrutiny and growing financial strain, it's more important than ever for advisers to stay ahead of the curve. This one-day conference brings together sector experts and the regulator to deliver essential updates and insights on the challenges facing your academy clients.
Who should attend the conference
This event is designed for accounting professionals who advise academy schools and want to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape.
By attending you’ll gain up-to-date guidance on critical topics, including strategies for the upcoming reporting season, recent updates on corporation matters, important changes in the draft Charities SORP, and much more — all to help you support your academy clients effectively and efficiently.
Online Conferences
The on-demand version of this conference is now available to purchase. This allows you to catch up on technical updates at your convenience. If you registered for the live event, you will receive complimentary access to the recording.
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Full conference agenda
Welcome and introduction
Roger Allum, Mercia Group
This session will cover:
- The changes to the Academies Accounts Direction 2024/25 and how firms can prepare for the 2025 academy reporting season.
Simon Oxenham, Woodard Academies
Using his now familiar blend of humour and hard-hitting facts Simon will update us on:
- The funding landscape for the academy sector
- The financial impact of the funding
- Thoughts on approaches trusts might take
- Operational Excellence in Education
- What impact AI is making in education
Andrea Deegan, RSM
This session will cover:
- Fraudulent activity can negatively impact any organisation, whether through reputational damage or lost and stolen assets or finances.
- We will use this opportunity to provide an update on fraud and bribery legislation, whilst sharing some insights into emerging fraud risks, fraud indicators and good practice.
Jon Daley and Vin Gogna, Crowe U.K
This session will cover:
- A session on corporation tax issues for academies and multi-academy trusts, covering recent developments and also regular issues commonly encountered within the academy sector.
Chris Whiting, Academy Advisory
This session will cover:
- sector risks as experienced from our work as academy sector internal auditors. Key risks affecting external audit will also be highlighted to assist annual planning and risk focus procedures.
Jamie Baxter FFA C.Act, Hymans Robertson
This session will cover:
- FRS102 assumptions - methodology and impact.
- Outlook for 31 August 2025 year end – indicative results commentary for the average employer based on current markets.
- Audit hot topics.
Gemma Archer, Mercia Group
This session will cover:
- In this session, we will look at the key changes in the draft Charities SORP and how these might affect academy trusts in future.
Conference speakers
Before joining Mercia, Roger worked as an audit manager at a regional firm with a focus on charity and academy clients. This allowed him to develop an understanding of the unique financial reporting and compliance needs within these sectors. He managed a diverse portfolio of clients, ranging from small regional charities to large, national organisations.
Roger has worked extensively with academy clients, ranging from single academy trusts to medium-sized multi-academy trusts. This experience exposed him to the complexities of academy funding and reporting requirements and gave him experience of ensuring compliance with regulatory standards while supporting the financial health and sustainability of the trusts.
Beyond audit Roger has served as a treasurer for a community co-operative, where he was responsible for overseeing financial reporting under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act.
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Simon has been in the academy sector since 2012 and is the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) national lead on school finance and efficiency. As a qualified Accountant, a Project Manager and Lean Practitioner, he spent a number of years working in the charity sector and a lot of his career working on finance, ICT and capital projects. Simon also worked in one of the largest FE colleges in the country so has knowledge of both charity and education accounting. Simon is well known across the sector having delivered numerous training sessions and presentations including for the Department for Education (DfE), and on behalf of ISBL. He is also a member of the DfE Financial Assurance working groups, the ISBL Special Interest Group and an elected member of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) Policy Advisory Group. Simon is the Chief Operating Officer at the Woodard Academy Trust, part of the wider Woodard Corporation. |
Jon has advised charitable organisations for over 14 years on a broad range of tax matters such charitable trading reviews, corporate restructures, international operating structures, Gift Aid processes and creative industry tax relief claims. At Crowe UK Jon works closely with advisers in the firm’s social purpose and non-profits function to provide complete advice to charities which cover tax issues in parallel with regulatory, commercial and other matters.
Jon has a wide variety of experience across the charity sector, working with NGOs, educational bodies, grant making organisations, members’ clubs, religious orders, social enterprises and arts and cultural organisations. Jon is qualified as a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser and has presented and contributed to a number of technical commentaries and seminars including with the ICAEW and Charity Finance Group.
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Chris Whiting is the managing director of Academy Advisory and has previously held CFO positions for a number of academy trusts. Academy Advisory is a specialist provider of internal audit and consultancy services to the academy sector with over 300 academies nationwide. Its services cover all aspects of academy trust operations, including areas such as educational improvement, safeguarding, finance, HR, ICT, estates and governance. Chris has worked closely with the DofE and ESFA on a number of engagements including anti-fraud response and academy turnaround in addition to his work as an internal auditor. |
Jamie Baxter is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries within Hymans Robertson’s public sector team, advising Local Government Pension Schemes and employers across the UK. He is one of the accounting specialists in the public sector accounting team responsible for delivering over 4,000 annual IAS19 reports for local authorities and FRS102 disclosures for academies and trusts. Within his role Jamie is responsible for the training and development of actuarial staff at Hymans and the planning and delivering of IAS19 and FRS102 exercises for employers across the LGPS throughout the year.
Gemma jointly leads the team responsible for Mercia’s file and compliance reviews, including performing reviews at client sites or remotely. She also lectures on Mercia’s Early Careers Programme and on specialist areas such as charities and academies, ESG and Mercia methodology, as well as advising clients on technical queries.
Gemma joined Mercia from audit practice in January 2021, where she had worked for 13 years, specialising in not-for-profit and charity clients for over a decade. Gemma has a keen interest in academies and sits on several ESFA working groups.
One Day Conference
Previous Academies Update Conference
Explore the programme of our previous Academies Update Conference:
