Special free schools adjustment: a guide for local authorities
Updated 28 November 2024
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2024
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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.
This guide explains the special free school adjustment to local authorities’ 2025 to 2026 high needs funding block of the dedicated schools grant (DSG), including:
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the purpose of the special free school adjustment
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how the special free school adjustment is calculated
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how the department identifies special free schools that are no longer new and growing
-
a list of special free schools no longer new and growing in annex 1: schools funded through the national funding formula for 2025 to 2026
Further information about high needs funding can be found in the high needs funding: 2025 to 2026 operational guide.
1.1 Updates for 2025 to 2026
Annex 1 has been updated to reflect special free schools no longer considered new and growing for the purpose of the 2025 to 2026 special free schools funding adjustment.
We will review this guidance in summer 2025.
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. The department deducts places funded at special free schools from a local authority’s DSG and pays it directly to schools, as for special academies.
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 2025 and reflected in the July 2025 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, where 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 section 5, calculating additional funding for local authorities .
4. Special free schools out of scope of the adjustment
Additional funding has been included in local authorities’ baselines in the 2025 to 2026 high needs funding formula allocations for schools identified as having reached the end of their period of growth before, or in, the 2024 to 2025 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 2025 to 2026, special free schools not considered new and growing for the purpose of this adjustment include:
Schools previously identified at reaching capacity
‘Annex 1: schools funded through the national funding formula for 2025 to 2026’ 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.
Schools identified as reaching capacity for 2025 to 2026
Those schools previously considered new or growing, as shown in ‘Annex 1’, where both:
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the school’s 2024 to 2025 funded places are at least as high as its total capacity on Get Information about Schools (GIAS) as of May 2024
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the January 2024 school census shows at least 90% of all places are occupied, where the number of places is the lower of:
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the 2024 to 2025 funded places, or
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the total capacity on GIAS as of May 2024
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Schools open before or during the 2017 to 2018 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’).
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.
Special free schools opening during the 2025 to 2026 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, the department 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 2025 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:
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January 2025 census – used in the import/export adjustment. Local authorities where pupils live are allocated £6,000 per pupil from the department 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
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2025 NFF basic entitlement - uses the October 2024 census multiplied by the basic entitlement rate, including area cost adjustment less £660 (historic teachers’ pay and pensions funding)
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2024 to 2025 academic year and 2025 to 2026 academic year high needs places, or capacity recorded on GIAS if lower than places funded, at:
- 2024 to 2025 academic year at £4,167 per place for April to August (£10,000 × five-twelfths), plus
- 2025 to 2026 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 2025 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 2024 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 2025 to 2026
Table 4 lists special free schools not considered new and growing, that are funded through NFF factors.
Table 4: special free schools no longer new and growing
| Local authority establishment number | Local authority | School name |
|---|---|---|
| 3017001 | Barking and Dagenham | Riverside Bridge School |
| 3026085 | Barnet | Kisharon School |
| 3037005 | Bexley | Cleeve Meadow School |
| 8897002 | Blackburn and Darwen | Eden School |
| 8907000 | Blackpool | Lotus School |
| 8017003 | Bristol | Venturers’ Academy |
| 8017004 | Bristol | Soundwell Academy |
| 8737008 | Cambridgeshire | Martin Bacon Academy |
| 8737012 | Cambridgeshire | The Cavendish School |
| 8957001 | Cheshire East | NAS Church Lawton School |
| 8957002 | Cheshire East | The Axis Academy |
| 9427003 | Cumberland | Cumbria Academy for Autism |
| 8417000 | Darlington | Marchbank Free School |
| 8787010 | Devon | Glendinning Academy |
| 3717001 | Doncaster | Bader Special Academy |
| 8457005 | East Sussex | The Ropemakers’ Academy |
| 8817002 | Essex | Grove House School |
| 8817005 | Essex | Chatten Free School |
| 8507005 | Hampshire | The Austen Academy |
| 3097003 | Haringey | The Grove |
| 3127001 | Hillingdon | Pentland Field School |
| 3137003 | Hounslow | The Rise Free School |
| 2067000 | Islington | St Mary Magdalene Academy: The Courtyard |
| 2067001 | Islington | The Bridge Integrated Learning Space |
| 2067002 | Islington | The Bridge Satellite Provision |
| 2077000 | Kensington and Chelsea | Kensington Queensmill School |
| 8867005 | Kent | Aspire School |
| 3837004 | Leeds | Lighthouse School Leeds |
| 8557000 | Leicestershire | The Fusion Academy |
| 8557003 | Leicestershire | Foxfields Academy |
| 3527000 | Manchester | Pioneer House High School |
| 3527002 | Manchester | Prospect House Specialist Support Primary School |
| 8877000 | Medway | Inspire Free Special School |
| 8067002 | Middlesbrough | Discovery Special Academy |
| 9267002 | Norfolk | The Wherry School |
| 9267011 | Norfolk | Duke of Lancaster School |
| 3537003 | Oldham | The Springboard Project |
| 8747000 | Peterborough | Medeshamstede Academy |
| 8517002 | Portsmouth | The Wymering School |
| 8707000 | Reading | Thames Valley School |
| 3727004 | Rotherham | Elements Academy |
| 3337000 | Sandwell | High Point Academy |
| 3737000 | Sheffield | Discovery Academy |
| 9337000 | Somerset | The Mendip School |
| 8527050 | Southampton | Rosewood Free School |
| 8037002 | South Gloucestershire | SGS Pegasus School |
| 9357009 | Suffolk | Churchill Special Free School |
| 9357016 | Suffolk | Sir Bobby Robson School |
| 9357018 | Suffolk | Woodbridge Road Academy |
| 9357020 | Suffolk | Sunrise Academy |
| 3947003 | Sunderland | Harry Watts Academy |
| 8667003 | Swindon | Churchward School |
| 8837000 | Thurrock | Treetops Free School |
| 3587002 | Trafford | The Orchards |
| 9377006 | Warwickshire | Quest Academy |
| 9407003 | West Northamptonshire | Red Kite Academy |
| 9417000 | West Northamptonshire | Daventry Hill School |
| 9417002 | West Northamptonshire | Purple Oaks Academy |
| 2137000 | Westminster | The St Marylebone Church of England Bridge School |
| 8687000 | Windsor and Maidenhead | Forest Bridge School |
| 3367001 | Wolverhampton | Wolverhampton Vocational Training Centre |