Guidance

Core schools budget grant (CSBG) methodology: September 2024 to March 2025

Published 29 July 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This document sets out the methodology for the core schools budget grant (CSBG). This includes guidance on how we will allocate funding for the 7-month period September 2024 to March 2025. 

We have announced almost £1.1 billion through the CSBG to support schools with their overall costs in the 2024 to 2025 financial year, in particular following confirmation of the 2024 teacher pay award.  

This funding is being split between mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provision (AP) and local authority centrally employed teachers (CETs). The split reflects relative pupil and place numbers, and core funding amounts, across these different types of provision. 

This guide explains how we will allocate the funding for mainstream schools (for the 5 to 16-year-old age range), and for special and AP schools, in 2024 to 2025. This funding will be allocated through the CSBG.  

In 2024 to 2025, funding through the CSBG covers the 7-month period from September 2024 to March 2025. The impact of the teacher pay award spans across financial years 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 and the grant funding we have announced for the 2024 to 2025 financial year therefore only covers the first seven twelfths of the full year cost of the award.  

We are also providing £97 million in respect of early years and post-16 provision. Additional funding for early years settings will be distributed through the early years budget grant (EYBG), reflecting the methodology used in the early years teachers’ pay grant (EY TPAG) in 2023 to 2024. Funding for post-16 will be allocated separately, and further information will be published in due course.    

 2. Eligibility for the grant

Mainstream schools 

CSBG will fund the following mainstream school providers, for the 5 to 16-year-old age range: 

• primary and secondary maintained schools 
• primary and secondary academies and free schools 
• all-through maintained schools 
• all-through academies 
• city technology colleges 

Special schools and  AP schools 

The CSBG will provide additional funding for the following special schools and  AP schools: 

• maintained special schools  
• special academies and free schools  
• pupil referral units   
• alternative provision academies and free schools  
• hospital schools and other maintained schools, and academies and free schools providing hospital education  
• non-maintained special schools (NMSS)  
• independent special schools 

 3. Paying the grant

 In 2024 to 2025 we will pay the CSBG  for the period September 2024 to March 2025. 

Mainstream schools 

We will pay the grant in: 

• November 2024 for local authorities 
• December 2024 for academies  

Schools will receive one payment to cover the 2024 to 2025 financial year. New and growing schools will receive their CSBG  payment later in the financial year as explained in the  new and growing schools section. 

We expect to publish school level and local authorities’ allocations in September 2024.   

We will pay funding: 

• for maintained mainstream schools to local authorities, who will be required to pay it to individual schools at the published rates 
• at the published rates directly to mainstream academies 

The funding for mainstream primary, secondary and all through schools will be incorporated into core budget allocations for 2025 to 2026, by being rolled into the schools national funding formula (NFF) for 2025 to 2026. 

We will ensure that the usual arrangements are in place for academies, to cover the CSBG in the period April to August 2025, given their funding cycle follows the academic year. This payment will cover the period before we move the grant into academies’ core budget allocations through the national funding formula.

Special schools and  AP  schools 

Local authorities will receive funding which they will then allocate to special and AP schools listed under the eligibility criteria above, except for NMSS, which will receive their allocations directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). 

Local authorities will receive 2 payments for their special schools and  AP schools in 2024 to 2025.  

We will confirm local authorities’ first allocations of CSBG funding for special schools and AP schools in September 2024. This allocation will be based on place numbers published and available to ESFA  by July 2024, with the relevant area cost adjustment applied. The allocation will also specify an amount of funding specifically for hospital education, which is for maintained hospital schools, the equivalent academies, and those special and AP schools that also provide hospital education. This first payment will be made to local authorities in November 2024. 

Local authorities will receive a second allocation of CSBG funding for special schools and  AP schools in March 2025, using updated place number data as set out in the allocations section.  This allocation will also confirm the amount of funding specifically for hospital education.  

We will allocate funding for local authorities to pass on to eligible schools, except for  NMSS whose allocations will be funded directly by  ESFA. 

Local authorities will have flexibility in how they pass on the allocations of CSBG funding for special schools and  AP  schools (including those schools providing hospital education) to those individual schools. This flexibility recognises that the teachers’ pay and other costs they face can vary considerably between individual schools, depending on the complexity of their pupils’ needs and other factors.  

Maintained special schools, special academies and special free schools

For their allocations of funding in respect of the schools they currently maintain, academies they previously maintained, free schools located in their area and schools that provide hospital education, local authorities must comply with the following requirements in setting their local methodologies for how they will pass on the CSBG funding to those schools. They must:

• pass on 100% of the CSBG funding allocated in respect of those schools, to those schools
• ensure that all those schools receive a funding allocation from the CSBG in 2024 to 2025
• have transparent criteria to distribute funding to individual schools, treating academies and maintained schools the same
• consult with those schools before deciding their methodology for allocating CSBG funding

Once local authorities know their allocations, they should seek to swiftly confirm the allocations for individual special schools and AP schools to provide them with the earliest possible certainty over their budgets.

Independent and non-maintained special schools

The allocation methodology that a local authority applies to its maintained schools, academies and free schools is not applicable to independent schools that are funded by the local authority for their placement of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The funding allocated to local authorities, based on their independent school placements, is to support the payment of any increases in fees charged by independent schools as a result of any increase in costs relating to the teachers’ pay award and other staff salary increases.  

Local authorities should also use this funding to support independent special schools with revised fees when – due to the timing of fee and salary agreements – those costs have not been reflected in the fees already charged for 2024 to 2025. Local authorities should pass on up to 100% of the funding notionally allocated for independent special schools, on either of the 2 circumstances above. 

NMSS will receive their CSBG funding at the standard rate per place direct from ESFA. 

Centrally employed teachers (CETs) 

The CSBG will provide funding to local authorities in respect of teachers categorised as centrally employed on the schools workforce census 2023.  

Dependent on local definitions, it may cover the following teachers:  

• peripatetic teachers, home tutors, and teachers who are employed by education authorities to provide education in institutions other than schools (for example hospitals, home tuition, assessment centres and pupil referral units). 

 4. Funding rates

Mainstream schools 

We have based the CSBG funding rates on factors used in previous grants: 

• a basic per-pupil rate with different rates for primary, key stage 3, and key stage 4  
• a lump sum paid to all schools, regardless of pupil numbers 
• a per-pupil rate for pupils who are recorded as having been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years (FSM6), with different rates for primary and secondary pupils 

We apply an area cost adjustment (ACA) to the funding rates in table 1 because of geographical variation in labour costs. We have used the same ACAs as the schools national funding formula for 2024 to 2025 and we have published them in the  area cost adjustment for national funding formula: technical note. 

We will multiply the base funding rates in table 1 by the relevant  ACA to calculate the school level allocations. 

Table 1 

The base funding rates for 2024 to 2025 financial year are: 

• a basic per-pupil rate of £76 for primary pupils, including pupils in reception 
• a basic per-pupil rate of £108 for key stage 3 pupils 
• a basic per-pupil rate of £122 for key stage 4 pupils 
• a lump sum of £2,900
• a FSM6 per-pupil rate of £70 per eligible primary pupil 
• a FSM6 per-pupil rate of £100 per eligible secondary pupil 

Special schools and  AP  schools 

The funding rate for the 2024 to 2025 financial year is £610 per place using the published SEND and AP place numbers as specified below. We apply an ACA to the funding rate because of geographical variation in labour costs. We have used the same ACAs as for the high needs national funding formula for 2024 to 2025 and we have published them in the area cost adjustment for national funding formula: technical note.  

Local authorities will also receive an allocation equivalent to 2.2% of the annual funding for hospital education included in the 2024 to 2025 dedicated schools grant allocations. 

Centrally employed teachers 

Teachers categorised as centrally employed on the schools workforce census 2023 will be funded on a per teacher basis, based a proportional split of the total quantum assigned to fund CETs. This will lead to a per-teacher funding figure.  

The CET per-teacher funding rate for 2024 to 2025 is £2,428.  

We apply an  ACA to the funding rate because of geographical variation in labour costs. We will use the same ACAs as for the  central school services block (CSSB )for 2024 to 2025 and we have published them in the area cost adjustment for national funding formula: technical note. 

5.   Allocations 

Mainstream schools 

We expect to publish school level allocations showing the total funding allocated for the remainder of the 2024 to 2025 financial year, and the conditions of grant in September.  

We will calculate allocations by multiplying the relevant funding rates by the pupil count, and FSM6 pupil count, using data from the October 2023 census. The allocations also include the lump sum amount. We will apply ACAs to the funding rates. 

We will use the same data sources as used to calculate the teachers’ pay additional grant in 2024 to 2025. This means that we have calculated published allocations based on the school estate in April 2024. We will use different pupil data for new and growing mainstream schools as explained in the new and growing schools section. 

We will pro-rata allocations for schools which are closing in the 2024 to 2025 financial year for the proportion of the remainder of the year that they are open. 

Special schools and AP  schools 

We will publish the first local authority level allocations and conditions of grant relating to special schools and AP schools for 2024 to 2025 in September 2024. 

We will calculate local authority level allocations by multiplying the per place funding rate (with  ACA  applied) by the published SEND and AP place numbers for maintained special schools, pupil referral units, special and AP academies and free schools, and the placements in independent schools reported by the authority in the AP census return. For hospital schools (and the equivalent academies) and other schools providing hospital education, we will provide allocations based on a separate calculation, using the above a percentage (see section 4 above) of the hospital education funding for 2024 to 2025 included within the local authority’s 2024 to 2025 dedicated schools grant. 

For the first allocation to local authorities, we will use 2024 to 2025 academic year place numbers for special and  AP academies (as published by July 2024), and 2023 to 2024 academic year place numbers for maintained special schools and pupil referral units (as reported in local authorities’ 2023 to 2024 section 251 budget returns). 

We will also use the number of pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan or special educational needs (SEN) support placed by the local authority in independent schools, as recorded by the authority on the January 2024 AP census. 

ESFA  will allocate funding directly to NMSS. ESFA will calculate this funding by multiplying the per place funding rate (with the relevant  ACA  applied) by the number of places funded for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. 

We will publish the second local authority level allocations in March 2025. For this second allocation we will use 2024 to 2025 academic year place numbers for maintained special and AP schools, as published in the 2024 to 2025 section 251 data (which may not be published at the time of the first allocation), as well as updated data on 2024 to 2025 place numbers for academies and free schools, including new special and AP  free schools as covered in the new and growing schools section. We will not update the AP census data as the numbers from the 2025 AP census will not be available to ESFA in time for the calculation of the March 2025 allocation. 

ESFA  will allocate any additional funding for new places in NMSS directly. ESFA  will calculate this funding by multiplying the per place funding rate (with the relevant  ACA  applied) by the number of additional places funded in the 2024 to 2025 academic year that are identified before March 2025. 

Centrally employed teachers 

We expect to publish the local authority allocations for CETs and conditions of grant for 2024 to 2025 September. 

We will calculate allocations for local authority CETs by taking the number of teachers categorised as centrally employed on the schools workforce census 2023, and divide the total quantum assigned to fund CETs proportionally. This will lead to a ‘per-teacher’ rate. We will apply ACAs to the funding rates.

 6. New and growing schools

Mainstream schools that have opened in the past 7 years and are still adding year groups in the 2024 to 2025 academic year 

 We will fund these schools based on their pupil numbers in the October 2024 census and so will confirm allocations in February 2025. 

 To help these schools with budget planning, we will publish indicative CSBG school level allocations in October (alongside the actual allocations for other mainstream schools), using pupil data from their local authority’s 2023 to 2024 authority proforma tool (APT). The actual February 2025 allocations for these schools will be different because they will use more recent pupil data. 

Mainstream schools opening in September 2024 

 For mainstream schools that open in September 2024, we will confirm CSBG allocations in February 2025. We will calculate their allocations using pupil number data from the October 2024 census. 

We will not publish indicative funding allocations for these schools. School leaders can estimate their funding levels using the published per pupil funding rates. 

New special and  AP  free schools that open before February 2025. 

Funding for any new special and  AP  free schools opening before February 2025, whose place numbers are not included in calculation of the first CSBG allocation, will be included in the second CSBG allocation to be made in March 2025. Local authorities will be aware of those special and  AP  free schools opening in their area and should take them into account in consultations and decisions about the distribution of CSBG funding. 

 7. Contact us

 If you have any questions after reading this guidance, please contact us via our customer help portal