Guidance

National funding formula notional allocations: supplementary guidance

Updated 31 October 2023

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2023

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-funding-formula-tables-for-schools-and-high-needs-2024-to-2025/national-funding-formula-notional-allocations-supplementary-guidance

This guidance can help schools and local authorities:

  • access national funding formula (NFF) notional allocations on COLLECT
  • understand these notional allocations

COLLECT reports

Reports on COLLECT, explain the calculations used to determine your school’s:

  • notional allocations
  • funding baselines

Report A details all the data we have published.

Report C has step-by-step information about the notional amounts of funding you will receive.

If you previously accessed the 2023 to 2024 reports, you will automatically be able to access the latest reports.

Access to the 2023 to 2024 NFF figures will remain available for a few months. Make sure you are accessing the reports for the appropriate NFF year.

How to access your NFF notional allocations on COLLECT

To access your school’s data through COLLECT, you will need an active DfE sign-in account with the NFF option enabled.

Add NFF access to your account

Each school has a designated DfE sign-in approver. They are responsible for administering user accounts within the school. If you do not have an account or need to enable the NFF option, contact your approver. They should complete the following steps to add NFF access to your account.

  1. Select ‘COLLECT’ when viewing the user account.

  2. Select the checkbox for the ‘National Funding Formula’ in the list of available roles.

  3. Select ‘Save’.

Access COLLECT data in DfE sign-in

Once the NFF option has been successfully added to your DfE sign-in account, you can access the data in COLLECT by completing the following actions.

  1. Sign in to DfE sign-in and select ‘COLLECT’.

  2. Select ‘Schools Block NFF 2024-25 – notional outcomes and impacts’, then ‘Select data collection’.

  3. Select ‘Launch Reports’ and select the report you wish to run from the drop-down list.

If you cannot see ‘Schools Block NFF 2024-25 – notional outcomes and impacts’ listed, check with your approver to confirm that NFF has been correctly added to the COLLECT service on your account.

If your school has a new LAEstab number, contact the DfE sign-in helpdesk. We will need to make the NFF data visible under your new number.

If you are still unable to access the NFF reports, check the DfE sign-in guidance or contact the DfE sign-in helpdesk. It may take up to 7 working days for us to process a service request.

We will not grant NFF access to individual user accounts. It is the responsibility of a school’s approver to perform all user administration activities for their school.

Multi-academy trusts

We are unable to provide multi-academy trusts (MAT) with direct access to the NFF reports for all their schools.

MAT staff members may already have a DfE sign-in account for each of their schools and be able to access them individually. Alternatively, each school should be able to access these reports.

To access a MAT’s individual school data in COLLECT, the user will need the DfE sign-in approver for each school to create an account with the appropriate COLLECT access. The approver should follow the instructions to add NFF access to your account.

Alternatively, a MAT member can submit a request for a copy of the COLLECT data for all schools in the MAT. To do this, request a confidentiality declaration using the ESFA enquiry form. You will need to explain what data you require and why. However, accessing the data via COLLECT is usually the quickest and easiest option.

Accessing data about pupil characteristics

Individual schools and local authorities can see a more detailed breakdown of the formula calculation and underpinning characteristics data via COLLECT.

We have not published pupil characteristics data and the underlying NFF calculations for individual schools due to data confidentiality restrictions.

Subject to approval, school-level NFF notional funding calculations and the aggregate data underpinning them are available for those who are carrying out any of the following, to promote the education or wellbeing of children in England:

  • conducting research or analysis
  • producing statistics
  • providing information or guidance

To get access to this data, request an electronic confidentiality declaration using the ESFA enquiry form. On the declaration form you will need to explain the purpose for the information, and agree that you and your organisation:

  • intend to use the data only for the specified purpose in your request
  • will keep the data only as long as you need it for this purpose
  • will not share the data without our prior written approval

We will inform you of all decisions relating to the release of the data and ask you to provide more information if required. We will also give feedback explaining reasons why we have rejected a request.

Back to top