Dedicated schools grant assurance: guidance for local authorities for 2023 to 2024
Guidance for chief finance officers (CFOs) on how to submit the dedicated schools grant (DSG) assurance statement and note to the accounts for the 2023 to 2024 financial year.
Applies to England
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The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.
Local authorities are responsible for financial regularity in schools. A local authority’s chief finance officer (CFO) is responsible for making the necessary arrangements for local financial and management controls, under section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972.
Under these arrangements, the CFO must ensure that the grant monies for the dedicated schools grant (DSG) are used for the purpose for which they are intended. They must confirm this by submitting an assurance statement to the Department for Education (DfE) that confirms the deployment of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) for autumn 2023 to 2024, alongside a note to the accounts.
The deadline for submitting the 2023 to 2024 autumn term DSG assurance statement and note to the accounts is 5pm on Friday, 7 February 2025. You can change and resubmit your return up until this time.
The assurance statement and note to the accounts should still be submitted even if the audit of the local authority’s accounts has not been completed by this date.
Local authorities must submit their return using an online digital portal via their DfE Sign-in account. The digital portal contains two online digital forms, both of which must be completed by the deadline.
You can find the link to the portal in our attached guidance ‘Dedicated schools grant (DSG) assurance statement and note to the accounts: guidance for completing the digital forms’.
Local authorities should review this guidance before submitting each online form via the portal. This will cover the technical aspects of the online forms including how to set up a DfE Sign-in account.