Guidance

Special free schools adjustment: a guide for local authorities

Updated 19 December 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This guide is for local authorities who have special free schools in their area and those commissioning places in special free schools outside their area.

It may also be useful to special free schools and others with an interest in high needs funding.

This guide explains the special free school adjustment to local authorities’ 2024 to 2025 high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), including:

• the purpose of the special free school adjustment

• how the special free school adjustment is calculated

• how the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) identify special free schools that are no longer new and growing

• a list of special free schools no longer new and growing in annex 1

Further information about high needs funding can be found in the high needs funding: 2024 to 2025 operational guide.

1.1 Updates for 2024 to 2025

The special free school adjustment principles and calculations are unchanged from last year, but we have clarified the basis for calculating the annual adjustment.

We have also clarified which free schools are in scope of this adjustment.

Annex 1 has been updated to reflect special free schools no longer considered new and growing for the purpose of the 2024 to 2025 special free schools funding adjustment.

We will review this guidance in summer 2024.

2. Purpose of the special free school adjustment

Local authorities receive funding through national funding formula (NFF) factors in their DSG for maintained special schools, special academies and special free schools. ESFA deducts places funded at special free schools from a local authority’s DSG and pays it directly to schools, as for special academies.

We recognise that new special free schools and those in their initial period of growth may create an additional cost for local authorities not reflected through the NFF factors. Therefore, we provide additional funding to local authorities through the special free school adjustment.

The special free schools adjustment data will be issued to local authorities in June 2024 and reflected in the July 2024 DSG update.

3. New and growing special free schools in scope of adjustment

The special free school adjustment is only intended for new special free schools, including those in their initial period of growth, for which funding is not received through the NFF factors that determine local authorities’ DSG allocations.

Additional funding for local authorities with new and growing schools will be calculated as in previous years. This is shown in calculating local authorities’ additional funding for new and growing schools.

4. Special free schools out of scope of the adjustment

Additional funding has been included in local authorities’ baselines in the 2024 to 2025 high needs funding formula allocations for schools identified as having reached the end of their period of growth before, or in, the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Funding for these schools will be allocated to local authorities through the relevant NFF factors, as for maintained special schools and special academies.

For 2024 to 2025, special free schools not considered new and growing for the purpose of this adjustment include:

1). Schools previously identified at reaching capacity – annex 1 lists those schools identified as reaching the end of their period of growth, in or, before 2024 to 2025. This will not change in the event of subsequent expansions and increased capacity.

2). Schools identified as reaching capacity for 2024 to 2025 - those schools previously considered new or growing, as shown in annex 1, where both:

• the school’s 2023 to 2024 funded places are at least as high as its total capacity on Get Information about Schools (GIAS) as of May 2023

• the January 2023 school census shows at least 90% of all places are occupied, where the number of places is the lower of:

  a) the 2023 to 2024 funded places, or

  b) the total capacity on GIAS as of May 2023.

3). Schools open before or during the 2016 to 2017 academic year – if a school has not been identified at capacity, as above, but been open for 6 or more academic years, we consider the school to have completed the initial period of growth and it will be funded through the NFF factors (as shown in annex 1).

4). Transfer of provision - where a new free school admits pupils transferred directly from other provision (for example, from a closing special maintained school or academy) this will not be considered new and growing for the purposes of the adjustment, except in very exceptional circumstances. This avoids double-funding as the local authority will receive funding for the predecessor school through NFF factors that have already determined their DSG allocation.

5). Special free schools opening during the 2024 to 2025 financial year – adjustment calculations issued in June 2024 only include schools open before April 2024. The adjustment is not updated during the financial year. To ensure no additional cost for local authorities, ESFA will not deduct place funding for these schools from the 2024 to 2025 DSG.

5. Calculating additional funding for local authorities

Additional funding for new and growing free schools is allocated to both local authorities where a pupil lives and where the school is located. This recognises costs incurred through both place funding deductions and the import/export adjustment. The calculation, therefore, comprises of 2 stages.

The first stage of the additional funding calculation allocates £6,000 per pupil to the local authority where a pupil attending a new or growing special free school lives. This is based on data from the January 2024 census, also used in the import/export adjustment.

The second stage calculates any further additional funding to the provider local authority. This is to compensate for the cost of place funding, less funding calculated through the first stage, the basic entitlement factor and the import/export adjustment.

The calculation uses the following data:

• January 2024 census – used in the import/export adjustment. Local authorities where pupils live are allocated £6,000 per pupil from ESFA through stage 1 of the adjustment. This also recognises costs to local authorities as a result of the import/export adjustment shown in stage 2 of the adjustment

• 2024 NFF basic entitlement - uses the October 2023 census multiplied by the basic entitlement rate, including area cost adjustment less £660 (historic teachers’ pay and pensions funding)

• 2023 to 2024 academic year and 2024 to 2025 academic year high needs places, or capacity recorded on GIAS if lower than places funded, at:

  • 2023 to 2024 academic year at £4,167 per place for April to August (£10,000 × five-twelfths), plus

  • 2024 to 2025 academic year at £5,833 per place for September to March (£10,000 × seven-twelfths)

6. A worked example of the special free school adjustment calculation

As explained above, the calculation of the special free school adjustment for local authorities can be divided into 2 stages.

The tables below show a worked example of how the special free school adjustment is calculated in each stage.

Table 1: stage 1 – calculating the additional special free schools DSG funding

Row	Calculation element	Local authority 1	Local authority 2	Notes
i	Pupils resident in local authority	30	8	As recorded in the January 2024 census
ii	Additional special free schools DSG funding	£180,000	£48,000	Each local authority receives £6,000 per pupil

Table 2: stage 2 – calculating the additional special free schools funding

Row	Calculation element	Local authority 1	Local authority 2	Notes
A	Place funding deduction	-£516,667	£0	40 places funded at £10,000 per place for April to August ((40 × £10,000) × five-twelfths) = £166,667 plus 60 places funded at £10,000 per place for September to March ((60 × £10,000) × seven-twelfths) = £350,000
B	Additional special free schools DSG funding	£180,000	£48,000	As shown in row ii
C	Basic entitlement funding for special free schools included in the DSG	£152,000	£0	38 pupils at the school in the October 2023 census, calculated at a per pupil rate of £4,000
D	Net import/export adjustment	£48,000	-£48,000	Impact of the import/export adjustment on local authority 1 and local authority 2
E	Total net cost	-£136,667	£0	Rows A – (B + C + D)
F	Further additional special free school funding	£136,667	£0	Adjustment required to ensure total net cost at row E is funded

Table 3: total special free schools adjustment

Row	Calculation element	Local authority 1	Local authority 2	Notes
N/A	Stage 1 additional funding	£180,000	£48,000	Amount shown at row ii
N/A	Stage 2 additional funding	£136,667	£0	Amount shown at row F
N/A	Total special free schools adjustment	£316,667	£48,000	N/A

In this example, the total adjustment is £316,667 for local authority 1; this is made up of £180,000 in stage 1 and £136,667 in stage 2. The adjustment for local authority 2 is £48,000; this ensures that the costs associated with the import/export adjustment for local authority 2 are cost neutral.

If the net cost at row E is zero or a positive amount, funding through the NFF factors and stage 1 is the same or higher than the deductions. Therefore, no further additional funding is indicated at row F and we would not seek to recover funding allocated through stage 1 of the calculation.

7. Annex 1: schools funded through the national funding formula for 2024 to 2025

This table lists special free schools not considered new and growing, that are funded through NFF factors.

Local authority establishment number	School name
2067000	St Mary Magdalene Academy: The Courtyard
2067001	The Bridge Integrated Learning Space
2137000	The St Marylebone Church of England Bridge School
3017001	Riverside Bridge School
3026085	Kisharon School
3037005	Cleeve Meadow School
3097003	The Grove
3127001	Pentland Field School
3137003	The Rise Free School
3367001	Wolverhampton Vocational Training Centre
3527000	Pioneer House High School
3537003	The Springboard Project
3587002	The Orchards
3717001	Bader Special Academy
3837004	Lighthouse School Leeds
8017003	Venturers’ Academy
8037002	SGS Pegasus School
8067002	Discovery Special Academy
8417000	Marchbank Free School
8527050	Rosewood Free School
8557003	Foxfields Academy
8667003	Churchward School
8687000	Forest Bridge School
8707000	Thames Valley School
8737008	Martin Bacon Academy
8737012	The Cavendish School
8747000	Medeshamstede Academy
8787010	Glendinning Academy
8817002	Grove House School
8867005	Aspire School
8877000	Inspire Free Special School
8897002	Eden School
8957001	NAS Church Lawton School
8957002	The Axis Academy
9267002	The Wherry School
9337000	The Mendip School
9357009	Churchill Special Free School
9357016	Sir Bobby Robson School
9357020	Sunrise Academy
9377006	Quest Academy
9407003	Red Kite Academy
9417000	Daventry Hill School
9417002	Purple Oaks Academy
9427003	Cumbria Academy for Autism