October 2019

The Spending Round in August announced significant funding for schools. Today we have set out how funding for next year (2020-21) will be allocated to local authorities and schools through the National Funding Formula. This fact sheet will help you to understand what this announcement means for schools in practice.

 

1- How much money has the department announced for schools overall?

• We have announced a total additional investment of £14bn in schools in England across the next three years. This is made up of cash increases to the schools budget for 5-16 education of £2.6bn in 2020-21, £4.8bn in 2021-22, and £7.1bn in 2022-23, compared to 2019-20.

 

• This investment is on top of an additional £1.5bn each year to fund increased pension costs for teachers.

 

• The settlement includes an increase of £780m to the ‘high needs’ budget next year, taking overall funding for children with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to over £7 billion – a 12% increase on this year.

We recognise the budget pressures that schools have faced over recent years. The additional funding reflects this, as well as continuing to make funding fairer across the country.

 

2- What does this mean for schools in my area?

Today we have published illustrative allocations for 2020-21 for schools and local authorities, through the schools National Funding Formula (NFF). The formula allocations mean that:

1. Every secondary school will receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil next year, with every primary school getting a minimum of £3,750 next year, and £4,000 the year after.
2. We have lifted the gains cap on schools NFF allocations - meaning per pupil increases will no longer be capped. Those that are due gains will receive these in full.
3. Schools already attracting their NFF allocations can expect cash increases of 4% per pupil on average, subject to changes in pupil characteristics and numbers.
4. Funding for all schools can rise in line with inflation.

You can find the illustrative allocations at school and local authority level here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2020-to-2021.

To see a specific primary or secondary school’s allocation, open the link and download the ‘Impact of the schools NFF, 2020 to 2021’ spreadsheet. Go to the first tab: ‘look up a school’. Select your local authority and school from the drop-down lists at the top of the page. The excel document will then load a page showing the relevant data for your chosen school.

These figures are illustrative allocations, determined by the NFF (explanation in Section 3). The actual allocations schools receive will be determined by local authorities’ local funding formulae. In addition, academies final allocations might be impacted by trusts’ individual decisions e.g. to pool funding and allocate against need.

Today we have also published high needs allocations for each local authority for next year, calculated through the high needs NFF. These allocations are for 0-25 SEND services, including those provided by FE colleges and centrally by the LA, and for alternative provision. Special schools are funded from the high needs budget, as well as young people with complex needs in mainstream schools.

You can view the high needs allocations for each local authority for next year by downloading the ‘Impact of the high needs NFF, 2020 to 2021’ spreadsheet here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2020-to-2021.

 

3- When and how will local authorities and schools receive this extra funding?

Maintained schools will see the impact of this investment in April 2020, and academies from September 2020, in line with their respective financial years.

The schools NFF calculates an allocation for every primary and secondary school, based on individual pupil and school characteristics. Each local authority is then given the total funding for all schools in their area, and – within certain parameters – is responsible for designing a local formula that determines schools’ final allocations.

This means that the amount each school has been allocated through the NFF might differ from the amount each school actually receives. Schools will receive their final budgets in February/March next year.

We are committed to moving towards a ‘hard’ NFF as soon as possible, whereby a primary or secondary school’s budget is determined directly by a single, national formula. As a first step towards this, the minimum per pupil levels will be compulsory for all LAs to use next year within their local formulae.

You can see more information on the schools and high needs NFF here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-for-schools-and-high-needs.

Allocations for nursery and post-16 provision will follow in due course, in line with the normal annual cycle.

 

4- Where can I go for further information?

To find out more, you can:

• Follow the links to the funding tables to check how much additional funding has been illustratively allocated to schools and local authorities for next year. Consider sharing these links with school leaders and governors in your trust.
• Follow DfE’s social media content and consider sharing this on your social media channels by retweeting @educationgovuk on Twitter, or sharing content on Facebook.