Guidance

Schools block technical specification 2022 to 2023: for use in schools block allocations

Published 16 December 2021

This guidance was withdrawn on 20 December 2022

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date. Please see our latest guidance on the authority proforma tool (APT).

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This document provides a full technical specification for the school-level data that has been made available to local authorities in the prepopulated schools block data sheet of the authority proforma tool (APT), for use in allocating their 2022 to 2023 schools block funding to schools. We have updated the 2022 to 2023 dataset to use the October 2021 census data.

This note accompanies the separate guidance on how to complete the APT.

The data contained in the December 2021 APT is based on the autumn (October) 2021 school census returns, or other existing data collections. The table below outlines what data will be provided and summarises the source data for each indicator.

The indicators and their descriptions were set out in the Schools operational guide: 2022 to 2023. This document now provides more explanation on the construction of the data.

Date	Breakdown	Data source
School list	Local authority, LAEstab, unique reference number (URN), school name, phase, primary year groups, secondary year groups	Mainstream schools on autumn 2021 census. URN and school name are matched from get information about schools (GIAS)
Academy type	Recoupment academy or 0 (0 is a maintained school)	Taken from the department’s records – showing status on the autumn 2021 census date
London fringe	1 or 1.0156360164	District as mapped from the school postcode in the autumn 2021 census. Due to the reorganisation in Buckinghamshire LSOAs, mapped to the school postcode, are used to identify eligible schools
Year groups	Primary and secondary for middle schools. Primary and secondary for all schools. Key stage 3 (KS3) and key stage 4 (KS4) for secondary schools	Autumn 2021 census
Number on roll (NOR)	Primary, secondary, reception, years 1 to 6, KS3, KS4, year 7, year 8, year 9, year 10 and year 11	Autumn 2021 census
Reception difference	0 or positive value	Difference between on roll in Year R, autumn 2020 census and spring 2021 census. If difference is less than 0 then reception uplift will be 0
Free school meals (FSM)	Separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census
Free school meals ever 6 (FSM6)	Separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census - this is a change for 2022 to 2023. In earlier years, the data was taken from the previous spring census
Income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI)	Split into 7 different bands (G to A, where A is the highest level of deprivation), separate primary/secondary. Funding cannot be allocated to band G	2019 IDACI data. This is matched to the autumn 2021 census using pupil’s postcodes
English as an additional language (EAL)	First, first to second, first to third year in system; separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census for language group, plus autumn 2018, 2019 and 2020 censuses. Mapping on unique pupil number (UPN) for on-roll records
Looked after children (LAC)	Aggregated information indicating LAC (at 31 March 2021)	SSDA903 March 2021 data mapped onto the spring 2021 census via the national pupil database (NPD)
Primary phase low prior attainment	Year 1 to year 6 who did not achieve a good level of development	Early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) total score mapped to the autumn 2021 census. Mapping on UPN only. As there were no EYFSP tests in 2020 and 2021, year 1 and year 2 will use the year 3 ratio or the local authority year 3 average
Secondary phase low prior attainment	Year 7, year 8, year 9, year 10 and year 11 who did not achieve the expected level of attainment	Key stage 2 (KS2) attainment data mapped to the autumn 2021 census. Mapping on UPN only. As there were no KS2 tests in 2020 and 2021, year 7 and year 8 will use the year 9 ratio or the local authority year 9 average
Mobility	First entry for the pupil at the school, or any predecessor school where appropriate, was in last 3 academic years; separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census
Sparsity	Primary, secondary, middle, all-through	Autumn 2021 census, GIAS, Ordnance Survey, Office for National Statistics

Table 1: data included in the December APT

The autumn 2021 census day was 7 October 2021, and therefore the data reflects the status of schools at that date. All data for maintained schools will have been first approved by the local authority prior to being used by the department.

The pupil-level indicators for numbers on roll, IDACI, free school meals (FSM) eligibility and mobility have been calculated from data collected in the autumn 2021 census. This data has also been linked, using the UPN collected in the autumn census, to data held in the department’s NPD to create the EAL and prior attainment indicators.

This data extract has been prepared prior to the autumn 2021 census being formally matched into the NPD. The IDACI indicators are based on the relationship between pupil postcode, local authority district and IDACI ranks.

Changes made to the dataset for the 2022 to 2023 formula, compared to that used for the 2021 to 2022 formula, are:

• following the cancellation of 2020 and 2021 primary school assessments due to coronavirus (COVID-19), the low prior attainment (LPA) ratios for years 1, 2, 7 and 8 for each school have been updated using the corresponding school’s ratio for pupils in years 3 and 9 or, for new schools, the local authority average for year 3 or year 9
• following the change to the data used in the pupil premium FSM6 data is now sourced from the October 2021 census
• due to the cancellation of the summer 2020 census mobility data in 2021 to 2022 SBD excluded pupils starting between January and May 2020 - the date starting at the school they are enrolled at on the October 2021 census is now used to identify additional mobile pupils *sparsity distances are now based on road distances rather than straight-line distances.

More information about the school census can be found in the school census guidance. If you have any queries about this specification, please contact us.

1.1 Using the data to allocate school budgets

For each of the pupil-led factors there are one or more allowable indicators. The pupil-led factors are:

• age-weighted pupil units (AWPU)
• deprivation
• English as an additional language (EAL)
• prior attainment
• mobility
• Looked-after children (LAC)

For AWPU, the indicator to be used is the number on roll (NOR) for primary, key stage 3 (KS3) and key stage 4 (KS4). For the other indicators, schools attract funding through pupil units. These pupil units are calculated as the appropriate NOR weighted by the proportion of pupils that qualify under the indicator.

The pupil units for primary FSM would be given by:

• primary NOR multiplied by the number of primary pupils eligible for FSM / the number of primary pupils with a valid FSM response

Or, from the supplied dataset:

• NOR primary x primary FSM proportion

All the indicator data (except NOR) is presented in the APT in the form of a decimal proportion that should be applied to the NOR. This means that if authorities record a change to a school’s NOR figures in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ sheet of the APT (see the circumstances described on the next page in which adjustments to NOR figures can be made), then the proportion in the schools block dataset can still be multiplied by them to derive the appropriate pupil units.

The calculations of the proportions always exclude pupils with a NULL value for the required response. This, plus the facility for local authorities to alter the NOR, can result in pupil units for the indicators which are not whole numbers. Values in the schools block are shown to 2 decimal places but this is presentational only, and numbers are not rounded.

2. Local adjustments to the supplied schools block data

In some cases, it will be necessary to use a local calculation or estimate for an indicator, based on the technical descriptions given in this document, to ensure the data used in the APT to calculate school budgets is representative.

This only applies to individual schools. This section describes when and how this should take place. Adjustments should be recorded via the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ sheet of the APT, and a clear explanation for the change must be provided in each case.

2.1 Schools undergoing change

In the case of a planned amalgamation, the data should be taken from each of the schools as they appear in the ‘Schools Block Data’ sheet of the APT and then merged, using weighted sums for each of the factors.

In the example shown in the table below, Old Street Infants and Old Street Juniors are combining to form New Street Primary. The primary FSM proportion for the new school is calculated as the weighted average of the relevant proportion figures for the former schools. A similar calculation should be done for all the other pupil-led factors.

School	NOR primary	Primary FSM proportion
Old Street Infants	300	0.10
Old Street Juniors	100	0.05
New Street Primary	300 + 100 = 400	((300 x 0.10) + (100 x 0.05)) / (300 + 100) = 0.0875

Table 2: example weighted average calculation

In the case of a new school with no relevant predecessors, or a school converting from the private sector, a local estimate should be used based on similar schools in the local authority for the first year.

2.2 Individual data points that are not representative

For some schools, the indicator data contained in the schools block dataset will not be representative. In this case, it would be reasonable to use a local estimate for the indicator. Making such a change does not require prior ESFA approval, but clear explanations for any such changes must be provided on the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ sheet of the APT.

2.3 Anomalous primary/secondary pupils

Where a primary school has only one or two secondary phase pupils in the ‘Schools Block Data’ sheet of the APT (or conversely for a secondary school with a small number of primary phase pupils) this may suggest a school census recording error.

Local authorities may wish to verify whether these are errors, and if so, amend individual schools’ NOR data accordingly, to avoid incorrect formula allocations. Making such a change does not require prior ESFA approval, but clear explanations for any such changes must be provided on the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ sheet of the APT.

2.4 Sparsity distances

Local authorities can make exceptional applications for schools that open after the distances have been calculated. An existing school that qualifies for sparsity funding in the data provided will not lose that funding in-year if a new school opens nearby.

For schools that may qualify for sparsity funding because of another school nearby closing, an exceptional application should be agreed with the relevant school’s forum and submitted to ESFA for approval.

3. Schools block schools and pupils

All mainstream schools that are recorded on the autumn 2021 census are included in the ‘Schools Block Data’ sheet of the APT. This covers all mainstream schools open on census date except the 2 city technology colleges, Emmanuel College and Thomas Telford School. Special schools, alternative provision (AP) schools, pupil referral units (PRUs), early years providers and other institutions without schools block pupils are excluded.

The school filters applied to the census data to identify the schools included in the dataset are:

• the school type code is a value less than 50 or is equal to 55
• the phase is either ‘PS’ (primary, including academies), ‘MP’ (middle-deemed primary), ‘MS’ (middle-deemed secondary), ‘SS’ (secondary, including academies), or ‘AT’ (all-through excluding PRUs)

The pupil filters applied ensure that only pupils aged 4 or above at the start of the 2021 to 2022 academic year that are in national curriculum year groups R to 11, or pupils aged 4 to 15 in year group X are counted. Note that pupils are counted as headcount, not full-time equivalent.

These are:

• On_Roll = 1 – the pupil must be recorded in the autumn 2021 census as on roll at a school passing the school-level filter

• EnrolStatus in (‘C’, ‘M’) – the pupil’s on-roll status at the school is either ‘C’ or ‘M’; the pupil must either be solely registered at the school, or if dual-registered have their main registration at the school Then either of:

• NCYearActual in (‘R’, ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘5’, ‘6’, ‘7’, ‘8’, ‘9’, ‘10’, ‘11’) and AgeAtStartOfAcademicYear >= 4 – the pupil must be recorded in the autumn 2021 census as in national curriculum year groups R to 11 inclusive, and the pupil must be aged 4 or more on 31 August 2021
• NCYearActual = ‘X’ and AgeAtStartOfAcademicYear >= 4 and AgeAtStartOfAcademicYear < 16) – the pupil must be recorded in the autumn 2021 census as in year X (not following the national curriculum) and the pupil must be aged between 4 and 15 on 31 August 2021

The dataset only includes pupils which pass both the school and pupil filters.

3.1 School information

This section explains how the fields in the dataset which provide information about each school are obtained. It also describes how the London fringe, NOR and reception difference figures are produced.

These fields are taken from the autumn 2021 census, except for the URN and the school name which are matched from GIAS:

• URN
• LAEstab
• school name
• phase
• number of primary year groups for middle schools
• number of secondary year groups for middle schools
• number of primary year groups for all schools
• number of secondary year groups for all schools
• number of KS3 year groups for all schools
• number of KS4 year groups for all schools

Academy type

This field contains the value 0 for maintained schools and ‘Recoupment Academy’ for academies. Using these in the schools block dataset aims to facilitate correct recording.

The valid values for this field are:

• Recoupment Academy
• 0

London fringe

For the 5 local authorities who have some of their schools within the London fringe area (Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and West Sussex), we have determined an appropriate uplift that should be applied to the affected schools’ budgets. The uplift was calculated using the specific cost of teaching staff within the different pay band areas and the proportion of school expenditure that goes on teaching staff. Using the national distribution of teaching staff by pay band spine point (school workforce census 2013) and spine point salary data (school teachers’ pay and conditions document 2013) we calculated the average uplift between the London fringe and the rest of England teacher pay band areas to be 2.96%.

Analysis of the financial year 2012 to 2013 section 251 outturn reporting lines indicated that 53% of school expenditure goes on teaching staff costs. On this basis, the uplift for London fringe schools was 53% of 2.96% which gives a value of 1.56% to be applied to the school formula funding – excluding factors that should be paid as actual, such as rates, private finance initiative (PFI), split-site and exceptional circumstances.

The districts in the 5 affected local authorities that fall within the London fringe are:

• Buckinghamshire: the former districts Chiltern and South Bucks
• Essex: Basildon, Brentwood, Epping Forest, Harlow
• Hertfordshire: Broxbourne, Dacorum, East Hertfordshire, Hertsmere, St Albans, Three Rivers, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield
• Kent: Dartford, Sevenoaks
• West Sussex: Crawley

All fringe schools will have the value 1.0156360164 for this indicator; all other schools will have the value 1.

School number on roll

• NOR
• NOR Primary
• NOR Reception
• NOR Year 1 to 6
• NOR Secondary
• NOR KS3
• NOR KS4
• NOR Year 7
• NOR Year 8
• NOR Year 9
• NOR Year 10
• NOR Year 11

Pupils have been counted by headcount, irrespective of whether they are part-time. Pupils recorded in national curriculum year groups R to 6 are classed as in the primary phase and those in year groups 7 to 11 are classed as in the secondary phase. Primary pupils are additionally split into reception pupils and pupils in years 1 to 6 and secondary pupils are additionally split into key stage groups: KS3 (years 7 to 9) and KS4 (years 10 to 11) and individual years 7 to 11.

The NOR figures are calculated from the autumn 2021 census as the number of pupils at each school passing the pupil filters described in the ‘Schools block schools and pupils’ section of this document, whose national curriculum year group is in the relevant range.

Pupils recorded in year X in the October census aged between 4 and 15 are now included in the data. These pupils are allocated to a year group based on their age at the start of the academic year. The table below shows the year to which these pupils will be assigned.

Age at start of academic year	Year group X pupils
4	R
5	1
6	2
7	3
8	4
9	5
10	6
11	7
12	8
13	9
14	10
15	11

Table 3: schools block year group for pupils recorded in year group X

For total NOR, the range is years R to 11 (including pupils in year X allocated to years R to 11).

Reception difference

The difference between the number of pupils on roll in reception (only those pupils aged 4 and over at the start of the academic year) in each school between the autumn 2020 and spring 2021 censuses is provided in the dataset.

This is calculated by subtracting the total number of year R pupils in autumn 2020 from the total in spring 2021 or given as zero if the result of this calculation is negative. If there are no year R pupils at the school then the result is 0. This is illustrated in the table below.

URN	October 2020 (1) number of pupils in year R	January 2021 (2) number of pupils in year R	(2) – (1)	Reception difference
xxxx1	0	0	0	0
xxxx2	62	62	0	0
xxxx3	38	33	-5	0
xxxx4	55	62	7	7

Table 4: reception difference illustration

3.2 Detailed specification for individual factors

For all the indicators, the NOR filters apply at pupil level. Where a pupil does not have a valid response for the indicator in the census or other data source, they are excluded when calculating the indicator. For example, a pupil with no postcode recorded on the census is discounted when calculating a school’s IDACI proportions. The data used for each indicator is taken from the October 2021 census unless otherwise indicated.

Deprivation

The allowable indicators are free school meals (FSM), free school meals ever 6 (FSM6) and IDACI.

Free school meals

• primary FSM proportion
• secondary FSM proportion

The proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals according to the autumn 2021 census has been aggregated to school level, with separate indicators for primary and secondary phase pupils.

Free school meals Ever 6

• primary ever 6 proportion
• secondary ever 6 proportion

This counts the proportion of pupils on roll on the autumn 2021 census that were recorded as eligible for FSM in any of the censuses (autumn, spring and summer, including the alternative provision (AP) and pupil referral unit (PRU) census) over the previous 6 years. This uses the same data that will be used for allocating the pupil premium.

More information on this indicator and the pupil premium can be found in pupil premium funding and accountability for schools guidance.

3.3 IDACI

• IDACI Primary proportion band G
• IDACI Primary proportion band F
• IDACI primary proportion band E
• IDACI primary proportion band D
• IDACI primary proportion band C
• IDACI primary proportion band B
• IDACI primary proportion band A
• IDACI secondary proportion band G
• IDACI secondary proportion band F
• IDACI secondary proportion band E
• IDACI secondary proportion band D
• IDACI secondary proportion band C
• IDACI secondary proportion band B
• IDACI secondary proportion band A

The income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI) is a subset of the indices of multiple deprivation (IMD). It is an area-based measure defined at the level of lower super output area (LSOA) and is based on the data published in September 2019. It is a score between 0 and 1, which can be interpreted as the proportion of children aged under 16 in the LSOA which are in income deprived households.

Each LSOA is then assigned a rank, with 1 being the most deprived. Further information on the updated IDACI figures can be found through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) statistical release.

Only pupils living in areas with an IDACI rank in the 37.5% most deprived can be assigned deprivation funding through this factor, meaning there are 6 bands which can be given different unit values each for primary, and 6 for secondary phase pupils.

IDACI rank	IDACI band
Pupils in the most deprived 2.5% of LSOAs	A
Pupils in the next 5% most deprived LSOAs	B
Pupils in the next 5% most deprived LSOAs	C
Pupils in the next 5% most deprived LSOAs	D
Pupils in the next 10% most deprived LSOAs	E
Pupils in the next 10% most deprived LSOAs	F
Pupils in the remaining 62.5% LSOAs	G

Table 5: IDACI bands

For each of the bands, the proportion of pupils on the autumn 2021 census with valid IDACI details has been aggregated to school level, with separate indicators for primary and secondary phase pupils.

English as an additional language (EAL)

• EAL 1 primary proportion
• EAL 2 primary proportion
• EAL 3 primary proportion
• EAL 1 secondary proportion
• EAL 2 secondary proportion
• EAL 3 secondary proportion

There are 3 allowable indicators for EAL, all based on the language code given in the census. Both the short code set and the long code set are grouped so that pupils with an English code (including believed to be English) are “1_ENG”, pupils whose language is unknown or undeclared are “3_UNK” and all other pupils are “2_OTH”.

Pupils attract EAL funding if they are grouped as “2_OTH” from the language code on the autumn 2021 census, and can be shown to have been in the school system for less than one year, less than 2 years or less than 3 years. This is achieved by deriving a pupil level ‘years in system’ count based on the pupil’s presence in the autumn 2018, autumn 2019 and autumn 2020 censuses.

Using the years in system indicator and the current national curriculum year, an estimated national curriculum start year can be derived. This is important, as the indicator is offset for pupils who were in year R, N1 or N2 for any of the years covered. This is done because language did not previously have to be declared in the census for pupils aged less than 5, causing the data for pupils when in year R to be partial and unrepresentative. Also, for this reason, pupils in year R are excluded from the calculation of the ratios. Pupils grouped as “3_UNK” are also excluded.

A school’s EAL 1 Primary Proportion is calculated as the number of pupils in year groups R to 6 with the EAL 1 value, divided by the total number of pupils in years R to 6 with the EAL 0, 1, 2 or 3 value (pupils not given a category are excluded).

A school’s EAL 2 Primary Proportion is calculated as the number of pupils in year groups R to 6 with the EAL 1 or EAL 2 value, divided by the total number of pupils in years R to 6 with the EAL 0, 1, 2 or 3 value.

A school’s EAL 3 Primary Proportion is calculated as the number of pupils in year groups R to 6 with the EAL 1, EAL 2 or EAL 3 value, divided by the total number of pupils in years R to 6 with the EAL 0, 1, 2 or 3 value.

Corresponding calculations are done to obtain the secondary proportions.

Looked-after children

• LAC X proportion

Details of children looked after by a local authority are returned to the department on the annual SSDA903 collection. We have produced an extract of the SSDA903 2021 looked after children data collected from local authorities indicating whether a child has been looked after for one day or more on 31 March 2021.

The data is matched into the NPD using the UPN, and extracts are obtained showing where the children were on roll based on the spring 2021 census. The UPN is the main field used for matching purposes but other information about the child is also used such as date of birth, gender, ethnicity and responsible local authority.

The school-level weighting for this indicator is given by dividing the number of matched pupils by the NOR in the spring 2021 census.

Prior attainment

The early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) results and key stage 2 (KS2) attainment data are allowable indicators for primary and secondary prior attainment respectively.

Primary prior attainment

For primary schools, funding can be targeted at pupils who did not achieve a good level of development on the new EYFSP.

• low attainment under new EYFSP proportion

Pupils in the autumn 2021 census in years 3 to 6 are matched onto the new EYFSP data using their UPN. For pupils in years 1 and 2, as no tests were carried out in 2020 and 2021, the year 3 proportion is used if available. If the school has no year 3 pupils, then the local authority average for year 3 is used.

A school’s proportion in the dataset is the number of pupils in years 1 to 6 recorded as not achieving a good level of development divided by the number of pupils in years 1 to 6 recorded in the attainment data. Pupils who could not be matched onto the attainment data, or for whom the attainment data does not provide a result, are excluded from this calculation.

Secondary prior attainment

• low attainment secondary proportion year 7
• low attainment secondary proportion year 8
• low attainment secondary proportion year 9
• low attainment secondary proportion year 10
• low attainment secondary proportion year 11

For secondary schools funding can be targeted at pupils who are below the expected standard of achievement in either English reading, English teacher-assessed writing, or mathematics at KS2. Specifically, this means pupils scoring ‘B’ or ‘NS’ or ‘CA’ with a scaled score below 100 (after any adjustment) in mathematics or English reading; and pupils scoring ‘BLW’, ‘HNM’, ‘PKF’, ‘PKE’, ‘PKG’ or ‘WTS’ in English teacher assessed writing.

For each of the years 9 to 11, only pupils who have undertaken the assessment have been considered in calculating each school’s proportion. Pupils marked as absent or with a result other than those listed are excluded from this calculation. Pupils in years 9 to 11 in the autumn 2021 census who could not be matched onto the KS2 attainment data are also excluded.

For pupils in years 7 and 8, as there were no tests in 2020 and 2021, the year 9 proportion is used if available. If the school has no year 9 pupils, then the local authority average for year 9 is used.

Mobility

• mobility primary proportion
• mobility secondary proportion

A separate primary and secondary school level proportion is provided based on the number of pupils whose first census entry at their current school (or any of its predecessors) is within the previous 3 academic years and whose first entry was not in an October census. If the pupil started in reception and their first entry is in October or January, they will not be counted. Pupils who started the school in nursery classes are not mobile.

Any pupil appearing at a new school in the first census after its opening date will not be counted as mobile.

As a result of the cancellation of the summer 2020 census, any pupil with an entry date at the autumn census school which is after the spring 2020 census date and up to, and including, the summer 2020 census date (between 17 January 2020 and 21 May 2020) and whose school’s URN in autumn 2021 is different from the URN in spring 2020 and whose school URN opened on or before the date of the spring census will also be classed as mobile.

Any pupils which are duplicated (appearing against multiple schools) will be given null values (so will be excluded from the calculation of the mobility ratio).

This table shows examples of determining whether pupils are classed as mobile:

Pupil	NC year actual	First census pupil registered at school (from previous 9 returns)	Academic year of first census	In previous 3 academic years?	Start year	School (or predecessor) opening date	Normal entry month	Mobility flag
1	R	October 2021	2021 to 2022	Yes	R	September 2003	Yes	0
2	3	January 2019	2018 to 2019	Yes	R	August 2014	Yes	0
3	5	January 2020	2019 to 2020	Yes	3	January 2016	No	1
4	5	May 2019	2018 to 2019	Yes	2	January 2012	No	1
5	7	October 2021	2021 to 2022	Yes	7	September 2014	Yes	0
6	8	October 2019	2019 to 2020	Yes	6	August 2012	Yes	0
7	8	May 2019	2018 to 2019	Yes	5	September 2003	No	1
8	9	January 2020	2020 to 2021	Yes	8	December 2019	Yes	0

Table 6: Illustration of pupil mobility calculation

Funding may be targeted only at those schools experiencing pupil mobility above a 6% threshold, and funding is not provided for the first 6% of mobile pupils. Each school’s mobility proportions given in the ‘Schools Block Data’ sheet of the APT are their actual mobility proportions as calculated; the deduction of the first 6% is done automatically by the APT’s calculations.

Sparsity

• Primary sparsity av. distance to 2nd school
• Secondary sparsity av. distance to 2nd school

There is a change to the way that sparsity distances have been measured this year, using road distances instead of straight-line distances.

For the schools block data up to and including 2021 to 2022, we used straight line sparsity distances; these were calculated using straight lines distances from pupils’ postcodes to schools’ postcodes. As postcodes tend to cover several different properties, we used postcode ‘centroids’ to set the specific points from which measurements are made in our ‘as the crow flies’ distances.

Centroids are the centre of the properties within the postcode area (when referring to distances to or from postcodes, we are referring to postcode centroids). For each school, we identified the pupils who live nearest to it and for whom it is compatible and calculate the average distance to their second nearest compatible schools. Up to 2021 to 2022, this was each school’s sparsity distance.

We have made a change for 2022 to 2023, to use road sparsity distance – this is the shortest distance by road from the school site – not the centroid of their postcode, as previously – to the pupil’s postcode. To identify the points on the road network, we firstly identify schools’ and pupils’ locations on a map. To do this we cross-reference geographic data from the school census and GIAS, the department’s database of schools) with ordnance survey (OS) address data.

Schools can typically be located using Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs). UPRNs are a unique numeric identifier for every addressable location, which are allocated and overseen by local authorities. Use of UPRNs represents a change to the current process, enabling us to measure distances from a point on the road closest to a school’s specific site as opposed to their postcode centroids, which can be closer to or further away from the actual school site for different schools.

In a minority of cases, UPRNs are inaccurately recorded in GIAS by schools, so we revert to use of postcodes or coordinates to locate schools. The GIAS frequently asked questions web page includes information on how schools can check their UPRNs and correct them if necessary.

For pupils, we locate the closest building to their home postcode centroid. Locating the building is a necessary additional step to enable us to determine the correct road to route from. We do not include pupils’ postcodes that contain only Welsh or Scottish addresses in the calculation of sparsity distances by the road, because their closest or second closest school(s) might be in Wales or Scotland, for which we are unable to calculate a road distance.

Once we have found schools’ and pupils’ locations, we use the OS road network data to identify the closest access point to their locations on a road. We then calculate the shortest road distance from the nearest point on a road to the school, to the nearest point on a road to the pupil’s address, excluding footpaths and, where possible, avoiding roads such as farm tracks, guided busways and roads that have been altered for use principally by pedestrians as these are either unsuitable for normal school-home journeys or we cannot be certain they will always be accessible. We acknowledge one-way roads as ones that can be accessed and travelled along from either direction. This avoids treating some schools differently, factoring in one-way streets on journeys from schools and pupils’ homes but not vice versa (because that is the direction of travel the sparsity distance has been based on).

Once we have calculated road distances, we calculate schools’ sparsity distances in the same way as for the crow-fly distance method: for each school, we identify pupils for whom it is their closest compatible school (by the road) and calculate the average distance to their second nearest compatible schools (by the road). We compare these distances to the sparsity distance thresholds to determine whether the school is remote.

A school may attract sparsity funding if it is:

• primary and has fewer than 21.4 pupils on average in each year group, and has a sparsity distance that is greater than or equal to 2 miles
• secondary and has fewer than 120 pupils on average in each year group, and has a sparsity distance that is greater than or equal to 3 miles
• a middle school and has fewer than 69.2 pupils on average in each year group, and has a sparsity distance that is greater than or equal to 2 miles
• an all-through school and has fewer than 62.5 pupils on average in each year group, and has a sparsity distance that is greater than or equal to 2 miles

In addition, the factor includes a new distance threshold taper this year. This means that where schools’ sparsity distances are marginally below the main distance thresholds for sparsity funding, they will still attract some allocation through the NFF. The distance threshold taper has been set 20% below the main distance thresholds.

The default distance threshold is 3 miles for secondary schools and 2 miles for all other schools. If a local authority uses the distance taper, a primary school will meet the distance criteria if it has a sparsity distance greater than 1.6 miles (2 miles x 80%). Any primary school with a sparsity distance between 1.6 and 2 miles would receive a tapered amount providing it also meets the year group size criteria.

Local authorities may, if they wish, reduce the pupil numbers and increase the distance criteria (they may narrow the criteria), but the criteria quoted above may not be widened. Exceptional applications can also be made on behalf of existing schools that do not attract sparsity funding using the above criteria.