Internal scrutiny services for schools and MATs
Our internal scrutiny service for primary and secondary schools as well as trusts provides clear, independent oversight that helps your trust identify risk, improve governance, and meet your compliance obligations with confidence.
How can you improve your school compliance?
MATs, SATs and maintained schools often lack internal time or expertise to conduct thorough reviews, especially when stretched across multiple sites.
Whether it’s a budget compliance check or a full trust-wide review, we can help you with our school compliance services specifically designed with schools and trusts in mind. At Juniper Education, we take a proactive, purposeful approach to internal scrutiny.
Providing real solutions for all of your internal scrutiny and risk management challenges
Our professionally qualified experts offer a breadth of internal scrutiny and risk management solutions for schools and trusts.
- Support with site security, health & safety and critical incident planning
- Assess all financial processes, including financial governance and reporting
- Ofsted inspection preparation and mock reviews
- Non-financial audits for schools and trusts
- Education system audits
- Operational risk management
- Our experts will help you navigate, understand, and manage risk in your school or trust
What sets Juniper’s internal scrutiny service apart?
External scrutiny and school compliance reviews that are supportive, not judgmental and always sector-specific.
What does internal scrutiny include?
✓ School financial audit including: a review of financial systems, processes and documentation
✓ Sample testing of procurement, budgeting, and spending
✓ Assessment of compliance with Academy Trust Handbook (ATH) and internal policies
✓ Responsible Officer checks for maintained schools
✓ Clear, jargon-free written reports with practical recommendations
✓ Remote and onsite delivery options
Delivered remotely or in person, our school compliance reviews are accessible to schools and trusts nationwide. Wherever you're based, you’ll have access to dedicated expert consultants who understand your context, funding model, and regulatory requirements.
All non-financial school audits are tailored to your context, experience level and areas of risk, whether that’s across your MAT, or within an individual school.
Non-financial audits for schools and trusts
We go beyond the basics, offering 50+ in-depth, non-financial audits and reviews for schools and trusts. Our reviews provide information across key areas such as data, education, estates, HR, risk management, and more.
Internal scrutiny for academy trusts, schools and education settings
✓ Sector-specific expertise with education funding and finance
✓ Reports you can use - not just tick-box summaries
✓ Designed to align with your governance cycle and trust priorities
✓ Supports both school compliance and strategic improvement
✓ Fully integrated with our wider services across HR, finance and governance
✓ Remote and onsite delivery options
We don’t just assess what’s working. We help make what’s not, better.
Is this service for you? We partner with:
✓ MATs needing full annual internal scrutiny
✓ Standalone academies preparing for external audit and aiming to strengthen systems and processes
✓ Maintained schools requiring Responsible Officer checks
✓ Trusts & schools seeking a more strategic, joined-up view of financial health
If you need independent insights, expert support to identify risks, tailored to the education sector, we're here.
Meet some of our internal scrutiny experts
Every school has different risks, different budgets, and different systems. That's why we offer bespoke internal scrutiny for multi-academy trusts and schools.
We work with Trusts across the UK - from smaller academies with emerging structures to larger MATs needing multi-site sampling and consistency across policies.
Carly Quick Crockford
Internal Scrutiny &
Consultancy Manager
Since joining the Juniper Education Team in 2019, Carly has dedicated six years to enhancing the organisation’s financial and operational integrity. With 20 years of experience in finance, she brings a wealth of expertise to her role.
Rachael Langdale
Senior Consultant
Internal Scrutiny Specialist
Rachael began her career in Internal Scrutiny with Essex County Council in 2009 and became part of the Juniper Education team when the service was acquired. With over 16 years of experience in the field, she now works as a Senior Consultant.
What do schools think of Juniper's Internal Scrutiny?
Helping trusts stay accountable, efficient, and inspection-ready.
CFO Epping Forest Schools Partnership Trust
CEO Eveleigh Link Academy Trust
Dave Richardson Trust Project Manager, Osborne Co-operative Academy Trust
Free resources
All free to download, designed by our consultants, and ready to use.
Trusted nationwide
Used by schools and trusts across the UK.
Integrated support
Stronger when combined with finance and HR.
Our Internal Scrutiny service works seamlessly alongside our Finance Managed services, HR consultancy, and governance tools, giving you a joined-up, strategic view of your school or Trust’s operations.
It’s important to know that when Internal Scrutiny carries out audits, it’s completely independent and impartial. Even if your school or trust uses other Juniper finance services - like payroll or budget support - Internal Scrutiny remains entirely separate.