megaphone icon updated on 18 April 2023
Statutory/mandatory for: Academies Free schools

Academies are required to have a whistle-blowing policy. Understand the requirements and use our checklist and model policy to review the procedure for your school or trust.

Requirements for academies

In addition to having this policy and publishing it on your website, your trust:

  • Should appoint at least 1 trustee and 1 member of staff who other staff can contact to report concerns
  • Must make sure all staff are aware of the procedures and how concerns will be managed
  • Must make sure all concerns are responded to in a fair and proper way

Staff should know:

  • What protections are available to them if they report something
  • What areas of malpractice or wrongdoing are covered by the whistle-blowing policy
  • Who they can approach to report a concern

This is set out in the Academy Trust Handbook (pages 27 and 28).

Model policy and checklist

Our model policy is from our sister service,