Guidance

Schools block funding formulae 2024 to 2025: Analysis of local authorities' schools block funding formulae

Published 3 October 2024

Applies to England

1. Summary

This document provides a summary of the local funding formulae submitted by each local authority to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in January 2024. The local formulae specify how each local authority has allocated their dedicated schools grant (DSG) schools block funding for 2024 to 2025.

There is an accompanying datafile, which is explained in the ‘Information about the datafile spreadsheet’ section. Small details of funding formulae may change subsequently compared to the figures presented here, as a result of late amendments.

We also published a summary of local authorities’ funding formulae for 2023 to 2024.

2. Background

This was the seventh year of the national funding formula (NFF).

Detailed information about the NFF can be found in the Schools block national funding formula: technical note.

For 2024 to 2025, each local authority’s schools block DSG allocation was calculated based on the notional NFF allocations for schools in their area. Local authorities then set their own funding formula to distribute their schools block allocation. This document provides an overview of the 2024 to 2025 formula factor values chosen by local authorities as of 10 March 2024. For 2024 to 2025, schools are funded using 14 mandatory factors.

Split sites funding was updated in 2024 to 2025 so that the same eligibility criteria was applied across all local authorities. In addition to this, all local authorities were required to allocate funding within 2.5% of the amount included in the NFF.

The mainstream schools additional grant funding was incorporated into core budget allocations for 2024 to 2025, having previously been allocated to schools as a separate grant in 2023 to 2024. This meant that funding was rolled into the schools national funding formula (NFF) for 2024 to 2025, leading to an increase in unit values for the factors included in the report.

3. Main points

Overall, the data reflects further progress towards the NFF in its seventh year. When allowing for the area cost adjustment (ACA)^{[footnote 1]} it shows that, of 152^{[footnote 2]} local authorities in England, 123 have set all of their factor values in their local formulae within 2.5% of NFF values^{[footnote 3]}. This includes 17 that are doing so for the first time. All local authorities were compliant with the tightening requirements^{[footnote 4]} that were set for 2024 to 2025 on each of the mandatory factors.

29 local authorities are not mirroring the NFF, meaning that not all of their factors are within 2.5% of the NFF factor values. Details of the local authorities not mirroring the NFF are in ‘Appendix B’.

There are 126 local authorities that have set their minimum funding guarantee (MFG) to 0.5% per-pupil increase in funding.

The data also reflects that 150 local authorities have delivered the minimum per-pupil funding levels of £4,610 per pupil for primary schools, and £5,995 per pupil for secondary schools. The exceptions were Kent, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, who gained approval to set a lower value in the context of their safety valve agreement.

4. Commentary

This chapter looks at each of the principal formula factors in turn to see how they compare to the values in the NFF, as set out in the Schools block national funding formula: technical note

5. Pupil-led factors

Each local authority is required to use 5 factors based on their pupil characteristics, as recorded in their October 2023 census return. The local authority allocates a rate of funding for each eligible pupil.

Further information on how eligible pupils are identified can be found in the Schools operational guide.

6. Basic per-pupil funding

Local authorities were allowed to choose different basic entitlement rates for primary pupils, for key stage 3 (KS3) pupils and for key stage 4 (KS4) pupils.

The majority (142) of local authorities have selected a primary basic entitlement that is within 2.5% of  the NFF rate of £3,562. This compares to 137 in 2023 to 2024.

For KS3 basic entitlement, 144 local authorities, and for KS4, 143 are within 2.5% of the NFF rates of £5,022 and £5,661. This compares to 143 for KS3 and 139 for KS4 in 2023 to 2024.

For basic entitlement 139 local authorities are within 2.5% of the NFF for all 3 year groups.

Overall, the proportion of funding being allocated through the basic entitlement is 73.8% compared to 75.3% in the NFF and 74.2% in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae.

7. Deprivation

Deprivation is made up of 3 elements:

• children eligible for free school meals
• children eligible for free school meals in any of the last 6 years
• Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) data

In 2024 to 2025 the proportion of funding being allocated through deprivation is 10% compared to 10.2% in the NFF and 9.6% in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae.

7.1 Free school meals (FSM)

For primary FSM local authorities were allowed to set different rates for primary and secondary FSM. The NFF used a single rate of £490 for both phases. For primary FSM 138 local authorities and for secondary FSM 141 local authorities selected amounts that are within 2.5% of the NFF rate. For FSM 138 local authorities are within 2.5% of the NFF for both primary and secondary phases.

In 2024 to 2025 the proportion of funding being allocated through FSM is 2.1%, the same as for the 2023 to 2024 local formulae and the NFF.

7.2 Free school meals ever 6 (FSM6)

For primary FSM6 142 local authorities selected amounts that are within 2.5% of the NFF rate of £820. For secondary FSM6 144 local authorities selected amounts that are within 2.5% of the NFF rate of £1,200. Across both phases 141 local authorities selected amount within 2.5% of those used in the NFF.

In 2024 to 2025 the proportion of funding being allocated through the FSM6 factor is 4.4%, compared to 4.5% in the NFF. The proportion of funding allocated through FSM6 in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae was 4%.

7.3 IDACI

IDACI ranks are taken from the English Indices of Deprivation (IMD) for 2019 published by the then Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. It is a measure of income deprivation and identifies the proportion of children in out-of-work households or on low incomes.

Pupils are assigned to IDACI bands based on the rank of the lower super output area (LSOA) that their home postcode falls within. Band A consists of pupils living in the most deprived areas.

7.4 Table 1: the number of local authorities within 2.5% of the NFF rate for each of the 5 bands

IDACI band	NFF primary rate	Local authorities within 2.5%	NFF secondary rate	Local authorities within 2.5%
A	£680	139	£945	140
B	£515	140	£740	140
C	£485	140	£690	140
D	£445	137	£630	139
E	£285	138	£450	140
F	£235	138	£340	139

A total of 135 local authorities have selected a value that is within 2.5% of the corresponding NFF value for all 12 primary and secondary bands.

In 2024 to 2025 the proportion of funding being allocated through IDACI is 3.4%, compared to 3.5% in 2023 to 2024 and 3.5% distributed through the factor in the NFF.

8. Low prior attainment (LPA)

For primary LPA, 139 have selected a value within 2.5% of the NFF value of £1,170 and for secondary LPA, 141 have selected a value within 2.5% of the NFF value of £1,775. There are 139 local authorities within 2.5% of the values used in the NFF for both primary and secondary LPA.

Across all local authorities, the percentage of funding allocated through the factor is 6.2%, compared to 6.4% in the NFF and 6.3% in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae.

9. English as an additional language (EAL)

EAL is the number of pupils with English as an additional language that entered the compulsory school system in the last 3 years.

For primary EAL, 141 local authorities are allocating an amount within 2.5% of the value of £590 used in the NFF. For secondary EAL 140 are allocating an amount within 2.5% of the value of £1,585 used in the NFF. There are 138 local authorities within 2.5% of the values used in the NFF for both primary and secondary EAL.

Across all local authorities, 1.2% of funding was allocated through this factor, a slight increase from 1% in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae. In the NFF the proportion of funding allocated through EAL is 1.1%.

10. Mobility

The indicator for this factor is the number of pupils with a non-typical ^{[footnote 5]} entry date in the last 3 years. Funding is only allocated for the number of pupils exceeding 6% (for example, if a school has 10% mobile pupils, funding is applied to 4%).

For primary mobility 140 local authorities have selected a value within 2.5% of the NFF values of £960 and 141 within 2.5% of the NFF value of £1,380 for secondary mobility. There are 140 local authorities within 2.5% of the values used in the NFF for both primary and secondary EAL.

Across all local authorities 0.17% of schools block funding is being allocated through this factor, compared to 0.13% in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae and 0.1% in the NFF.

11. Minimum per-pupil funding levels (MPPL)

The NFF provides local authorities with a guaranteed minimum per-pupil funding of £4,610 for primary pupils, £5,771 for KS3 pupils, £6,331 for KS4 pupils (which amounts to £5,995 for secondary pupils in schools with pupils in all 5 secondary year groups).

Although every local authority is required to use the factor, only 127 actually allocated funding through it. This is because all schools in the other 25 local authorities were already receiving more than the minimum level through the other funding factors. Overall, 0.4% of funding is allocated through the MPPL factor, the same proportion as in the NFF. The proportion of funding in the 2023 to 2024 local formulae was 0.5%.

12. Total funding through the pupil-led factors

Basic per-pupil entitlement, deprivation, prior attainment, EAL, mobility and MPPL are the pupil-led factors which local authorities use to allocate part of their schools block funding. A requirement of the local formulae is that each local authority must allocate a minimum of 80% of schools block funding through the pupil-led factors.

12.1 Chart 1: percentage of funding allocated through pupil-led factors

Per-pupil amounts	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
Below 80%	0	0
80% to 82%	0	0
82% to 84%	0	0
84% to 86%	2	3
86% to 88%	4	5
88% to 90%	17	24
90% to 92%	42	42
92% to 94%	67	65
94% to 96%	20	13
96% to 98%	0	0
98% to 100%	0	0

All local authorities are allocating more than 80% of their funding through a combination of the pupil-led factors, the lowest being 84.7% and the highest 95.3%.

Across all local authorities, a total of 91.8% of funding is being allocated through the pupil-led factors (including MPPL). This compares to 91.57% in 2023 to 2024 and 93.5% in the NFF.

13. School level factors

Local authorities are required to use number of factors which are allocated as lump sum amounts dependent on the characteristics of each school.

Further information on how eligible schools are identified can be found in the Schools operational guide.

14. Lump sum

Local authorities must allocate a lump sum of the same amount to all schools of the same phase. Separate lump sums can be specified for primary schools and secondary schools. All-through schools receive the lump sum specified for secondary schools. Middle schools receive a weighted combination of the 2, based on the number of year groups of each phase present at the school.

Although local authorities have the flexibility to select different amounts for the primary and secondary lump sum, 147 have selected the same amount for both phases. This is the approach used in the NFF.

There are 137 local authorities that have selected a value within 2.5% of the NFF for the lump sum values (139 have selected a primary lump sum value within 2.5% and 138 have selected a secondary lump sum value within 2.5% of the NFF value of £134,400).

Overall, local authorities are allocating 6.2% of their schools block funding through the lump sum factor this year, compared to 6.3% in both the NFF and the 2023 to 2024 local formulae.

These figures do not include the additional lump sum payments for schools amalgamating in 2023 to 2024 (recorded in exceptional circumstance 1). The additional lump sum payments accounted for significantly less than 0.1% of schools block funding.

15. Sparsity

Whether a school is deemed to be sparse depends on 2 considerations:

• its sparsity distance
• the average number of pupils per year group

A school’s sparsity distance is derived from those pupils for whom it is their closest school (irrespective of whether they attend it). For all those pupils, the average distance, by road, to their second nearest school is calculated.

Local authorities can choose any of 3 different calculations for allocating funding to eligible schools. These are a fixed amount, a tapered amount or the partial taper used in the NFF. 147 local authorities used the NFF partial taper. Of the remaining 5, 3 used the fixed lump sum and 2 used the full taper.

The calculation also includes an optional distance taper which entitles those schools up to 20% below the distance threshold to a reduced sparsity lump sum if they also meet the pupil number threshold. This taper was used by 150 local authorities in 2024 to 2025.

Full details of the sparsity rules can be found in the operational guide.

Although every local authority must include sparsity funding in their local formulae, not all have schools that are eligible. Of the 79 local authorities that have eligible schools, 73 are using both primary and secondary sparsity lump sums within 2.5% of the NFF values.

The proportion of schools block funding allocated through the sparsity factor is 0.2% the same as in the NFF and the 2023 to 2024 local formulae.

16. Split sites

For 2024 to 2025 all local authorities were required to use the same basis for allocating funding. For any school which met the eligibility requirements a lump sum amount was allocated for each additional site and a tapered amount was allocated based on the distance from the main site to each of the additional sites. In the NFF the amounts were £53,700 for the lump sum and £26,900 for the distance funding. All local authorities were required to select a value within 2.5% of these amounts. For the lump sum 109 local authorities used the exact value and for the distance funding 107 used the exact value.

Although all local authorities were required to allocate funding for split sites 32 did not have any eligible schools.

In total, 0.1% of funding was allocated through the split sites factor.

17. Minimum funding guarantee (MFG)

The MFG provides a guaranteed per-pupil level of pupil-led funding for schools in the current year compared to the previous year. For 2024 to 2025 local authorities can set a rate between 0% and 0.5% which means that no school could receive less funding, per-pupil, than it received in 2023 to 2024.

All local authorities are required to set an MFG threshold of at least 0%, meaning that schools will not see a decrease in their per-pupil level of funding in 2024 to 2025. Overall, 135 local authorities set a threshold greater than 0% meaning that all of their schools would see an increase in their per-pupil funding.

As part of the MFG calculation local authorities could also cap and scale funding increases that were above the MFG threshold. The cap sets a limit at which per-pupil gains are deducted. The scale sets the percentage of the funding above the cap which is then deducted. A cap of 1% and a scale of 50% would deduct half of all funding above the 1% increase compared to 2024 to 2025. The use of capping and scaling cannot reduce a school’s funding below the MFG threshold so cannot result in a school receiving a lower per-pupil level of funding than it did in 2023 to 2024. Its use also cannot reduce per-pupil funding below the rates set in the MPPL factor.

There were 41 local authorities that included capping and scaling in their local formulae.

Funding through the MFG is £164m, the same as in 2023 to 2024. The amount deducted through capping and scaling has increased from £43m in 2023 to 2024 to £48m in 2024 to 2025.

18. Other formula factors

Information for each local authority on the formula factors not discussed in this note (London fringe, rates, private finance initiative (PFI) funding, and exceptional circumstances) can be found in the accompanying datafile.

19. Primary: secondary funding ratios

Local authorities’ 2024 to 2025 schools block funding formulae have been used to calculate the relative differences in per-pupil funding allocated to secondary pupils compared to primary pupils. For instance, a ratio of 1:1.24 indicates that secondary age pupils in a local authority receive, on average, 24% more funding per head than primary age pupils.

With the exception of the City of London, which has a single maintained primary school (and no secondary pupils), the ratios of secondary to primary per-pupil funding under the 2024 to 2025 formulae are shown in chart 2.

19.1 Chart 2: primary to secondary ratios 1 to x

1 to x	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
Up to 1.15	1	1
1.15 to 1.20	3	4
1.20 to 1.25	17	16
1.25 to 1.30	51	50
1.30 to 1.35	57	57
1.35 to 1.40	19	20
1.40 to 1.45	2	2
1.45 to 1.50	0	0
Above 1.50	1	1

The overall ratio nationally across all local authorities is 1:1.296, the same as in the 2023 to 2024 formulae

These ratios have been calculated for each local authority from the information they submitted to ESFA as follows:

1. The funding for primary pupils and funding for secondary pupils is split. For the factors with separate primary and secondary indicators (for example, basic entitlement and deprivation); this split is simply the amount of funding allocated through each type of indicator. For the other factors, the amount of funding allocated to each school in the local authority area is split between primary and secondary in proportion to the number of pupils in each phase at the school.
2. These amounts are aggregated to estimate the total funding for primary pupils and the total funding for secondary pupils.
3. These amounts are then divided, respectively, by the number of primary schools block-funded pupils on roll, and the number of secondary schools block-funded pupils on roll.
4. This gives per-pupil funding amounts for primary and secondary phases, and the ratio of the 2 is taken.

20. Notional special educational needs (SEN)

Funding for notional SEN is not a separate formula factor. In their funding formulae for 2024 to 2025, local authorities specify what percentage of funding allocated through each factor contributes to schools notional SEN budget.

Chart 3 shows how, at overall local authority level, the notional SEN budget in 2024 to 2025 varies as a percentage of the total schools block formula allocation (after the application of MFG, capping and scaling).

The overall percentage of formula allocation which is designated as the notional SEN budget across all local authorities is 12%, compared to 11.5% in 2023 to 2024. However, as chart 3 shows, like last year there is a wide variation across local authorities.

20.1 Chart 3: percentage of funding allocated to notional SEN

Percentage	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
0%	0	0
0% to 5%	3	8
5% to 7.5%	16	21
7.5% to 10%	33	34
10% to 12.5%	41	39
12.5% to 15%	27	21
15% to 17.5%	22	19
17.5% to 20%	5	6
Above 20%	5	4

Chart 4 shows the number of local authorities for which each factor is being used to determine schools’ notional SEN budgets. In the 2024 to 2025 formulae, the prior attainment factor is the most commonly used to contribute to notional SEN with 150 local authorities using it.

The majority of local authorities are also assigning a percentage of their basic entitlement and deprivation funding into notional SEN. For the formula factors not displayed on the chart (such as PFI) only a few local authorities are using these for notional SEN. Full details on the use of factors to calculate notional SEN in 2024 to 2025 can be found in the accompanying data.

Overall, the pattern of factors used to calculate notional SEN is similar to those used in 2023 to 2024.

20.2 Chart 4: formula factors used to allocate notional SEN

Factor	2024 to 2025	2023 to 2024
Basic entitlement	126	122
Deprivation	140	152
English as an additional language	42	43
Prior attainment	150	147
Mobility	37	33
Lump sum	34	31
Sparsity	6	6
Split sites	4	4
MPPL	16	15
MFG	10	10

21. Growth fund

In addition to the core funding allocated through the NFF, local authorities are also allocated funding based on growth in pupil numbers between years. Subject to the approval of their schools forum, local authorities are able to retain some of their schools block funding centrally (that is, rather than allocate it to their individual schools) for a growth fund. This can only be used:

• for the purposes of supporting growth in pre-16 pupil numbers to meet basic need pressures
• to support additional classes needed to meet the infant class size regulation
• to meet the costs of new schools

Local authorities must use the fund on the same basis for the benefit of both maintained schools and academies in their area. This growth funding is sometimes also referred to as explicit growth funding. From 2024 to 2025 local authorities were required to provide full details of the eligibility criteria for explicit growth funding along with the level of funding applied.

Further information about the growth fund eligibility criteria and minimum levels of funding can be found here.

Of the 153 local authorities, 136 are operating a growth fund in 2024 to 2025, compared with 132 in 2023 to 2024. The total value of these growth funds is £146 million compared with £138.3 million in 2023 to 2024. Growth fund amounts for individual local authorities range from £42 thousand to £7.8 million. It is worth noting that local authorities may also be funding implicit growth by adding pupil numbers to individual schools.

22. Falling rolls fund

Local authorities were also able to retain funding centrally to support schools currently experiencing falling rolls to prepare for an expected future population bulge, subject to the approval of their schools forum. For the first time in 2024 to 2025 the department allocated funding to local authorities based on falling rolls. Falling rolls funding can only be provided to schools where the local authority School Capacity Survey (SCAP) data for 2022 shows that places will be needed in the next 3 to 5 years.                      .

Only 22 local authorities are operating a falling rolls fund in their 2024 to 2025 formulae, with a total value of £9.3 million compared to 20 local authorities allocating £6.9 million in 2023 to 2024. Falling rolls funding for individual local authorities range from £50 thousand to £2.7 million.

23. Information about the datafile spreadsheet

Alongside this document, we have published a detailed datafile showing the 2024 to 2025 funding formula used by each local authority, as they stood on 10 March 2024.

24. ‘Proforma’ tab

This shows the full data for a selected local authority. Go to the cell near the top of the page next to the ‘Local authority name’ label, then select a local authority from the dropdown menu.

25. ‘Final data 2024 to 2025’ tab

This gives the proforma data values for each local authority in a large table, using these column headings.

25.1 MPPL

The amounts of the guaranteed MPPL for primary, KS3, KS4 and secondary pupils.

25.2 Reception uplift

Which local authorities have opted to increase the count of primary pupils to which the basic entitlement primary indicator applies, to include pupils with deferred entry into reception later in the year. The other column in this section shows the number of pupils this applies to.

25.3 Basic entitlement

This section shows:

• the per-pupil funding amounts local authorities have chosen for the primary and secondary indicators in their 2024 to 2025 formulae
• the number of pupils in mainstream maintained schools and academies in the local authority as a whole, to which each indicator applies
• the total amount of schools block funding allocated to maintained schools and academies through primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
• the proportion of schools block funding allocated through primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
• the proportion of funding which contributes towards notional SEN budgets

25.4 Deprivation, EAL, mobility, prior attainment

These sections also show the per-pupil amounts chosen, the number of eligible pupils, the total and proportion of funding allocated to schools and the contribution to notional SEN budgets through each of the factors.

25.5 Lump sum

Lump sum funding is shown in 2 places in the datafile:

1. in the group of primary and secondary lump sum columns (most funding through the lump sum factor is shown here)
2. in the Exceptional circumstance section (the column Exceptional circumstance 1 description will show ‘Additional lump sum’ in all cases. Exceptional circumstances 2 and 3 will vary but will refer to additional lump sum funding following an amalgamation)

The data in ‘Exceptional circumstance 1’ relates specifically to additional lump sum funding which local authorities are allocating to schools which amalgamated during the 2023 to 2024 financial year. As explained previously, local authorities must allocate such schools additional lump sum funding, so that they receive 85% of the combined lump sums of their predecessors. Local authorities could also apply to continue protection for schools which amalgamated during the 2022 to 2023 financial year. These amounts will be shown in Exceptional circumstances 3 to 7 with a suitable description provided by the local authority.

The data is presented in this way because local authorities recorded any additional lump sum funding for previous year amalgamations in a different section of their formula submission. Therefore, the total amount of funding that each local authority is allocating through the lump sum factor is obtained by summing the values in the ‘Lump Sum total’ and the relevant exceptional circumstances columns. Similarly, the proportion allocated through the lump sum factor is obtained by summing the values in the ‘Lump Sum proportion’ and relevant exceptional circumstances columns.

25.6 Sparsity

Sparsity funding is also shown in 2 places in the datafile:

1. in the group of sparsity columns (most funding through the sparsity factor is shown here).
2. in the Exceptional circumstance 2 section. The data here relates specifically to additional sparsity funding which local authorities are allocating to very small, sparse secondary schools.

25.7 London fringe payments, split sites, rates, PFI funding, exceptional circumstances

These sections of the datafile show the total funding and proportions of funding allocated to schools through each factor.

25.8 Schools block

The ‘Total Funding Schools Block Formula Excl MFG Funding Total (£)’ column gives the total amount of money allocated to mainstream maintained schools and academies in 2024 to 2025 under local authorities’ basic funding formulae. This section also includes any additional funding allocated through the guaranteed minimum per-pupil level of funding.

25.9 MFG

The column ‘MFG’ is the total funding local authorities are allocating to their schools, over and above the amounts derived through their basic formula, to ensure this condition is met.

The column ‘Capping factor’. The point at which any year-on-year increases are scaled back. The column ‘Scaling factor’ indicates the amounts by which schools’ increases in per-pupil funding over the level of the cap will be reduced.

The ‘Total deduction if capping and scaling factors are applied’ column shows the total amounts that have been taken off school budgets due to the application of the capping and scaling factors. Any entry of ‘0’ in this column means that either capping and scaling has not been included in the local formula or has not led to any deductions in funding for any schools in the local authority.

25.10 Totals

The ‘Total funding for schools block formula’ column shows the total schools block funding allocated to mainstream maintained schools and academies in each local authority under their 2024 to 2025 formulae, after additions for MFG funding and deductions from capping and scaling.

The ‘Total funding for schools block formula (including growth and falling rolls funding)’ is the total above plus any funding reserved for growth or falling rolls funding plus any adjustments made during 2024 to 2025 to a school’s allocation for the year 2023 to 2024.

Note that the totals will not exactly match the total DSG schools block funding for 2024 to 2025 that has been allocated to each local authority. There are a number of reasons for this. The funding formulae specify the funding allocated to individual schools, and so exclude local authority level allocations such as the growth fund and falling rolls fund, which are shown in the correspondingly named columns. In addition to this in some cases local authorities can request to move funding to the high needs block and the local formulae will reflect any brought forward over and underspends.

For the other columns in this section:

• ‘% Distributed through Basic Entitlement’ – the proportion of schools block funding being allocated through the basic entitlement factor in each local authority, prior to MFG and capping and scaling
• ‘% Pupil Led Funding’ – the proportion of schools block funding being allocated through the pupil-led factors (for example, basic entitlement, deprivation, English as an additional language, mobility and prior attainment), prior to MFG and capping and scaling
• ‘Primary/Secondary Ratio’ – the local authority’s primary to secondary funding ratio; a figure of 1.24, for example, denotes a ratio of 1:1.24, meaning that secondary age pupils in a local authority receive, on average, 24% more funding per head than primary age pupils

25.11 Appendix A: local authorities not mirroring the NFF

Local authority	Factors not yet within 2.5% of the NFF
Camden	Primary and KS3 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Secondary lump sum
Hackney	Primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
Kensington and Chelsea	Primary
	KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Southwark	Primary and KS3 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Wandsworth	Primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
Westminster	Primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Brent	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Croydon	KS4 basic entitlement
	Secondary IDACI
Kingston upon Thames	Primary and secondary lump sum
Merton	Primary and secondary lump sum
Sandwell	Primary and KS3 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
St Helens	Primary and KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Manchester	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Stockport	Primary basic entitlement
	Primary FSM
	Primary FSM6
	Primary IDACI
	Primary EAL
	Primary lump sum
	Primary and mobility
	Primary LPA
Barnsley	Primary and secondary FSM
Sheffield	Primary FSM
	Primary FSM6
	Primary IDACI
Kirklees	Primary and secondary IDACI
Bristol	Primary, KS3 and KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary LPA
Brighton and Hove	Primary and secondary FSM
	Primary and secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary lump sum
Swindon	Primary and secondary mobility
	Primary and secondary mobility
Windsor and Maidenhead	Primary and secondary sparsity
Slough	Primary and secondary mobility
Wokingham	Primary and secondary FSM
	Secondary FSM6
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary and secondary EAL
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary mobility
Essex	KS4 basic entitlement
Medway	Primary and secondary lump sum
Blackburn with Darwen	Primary and secondary mobility
Telford and Wrekin	Primary and secondary mobility
Hertfordshire	KS4 basic entitlement
	Primary FSM
	Primary and secondary IDACI
	Primary EAL
	Primary and secondary LPA
	Primary and secondary lump sum
	Primary and secondary mobility
Surrey	Secondary lump sum

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1. The NFF applies an area cost adjustment (ACA) to funding allocated through the individual factors. The local formula does not include an ACA, instead local authorities include this adjustment in the value set for each factor. When comparing the factors used by each local authority against the NFF the ACA adjustment must be taken into account. In the analysis presented in this paper, we have done this by deflating the local formula factor values with their ACA values, before making the comparison with the NFF values. ↩

2. All comparisons to the NFF exclude the Isles of Scilly so there are 152 local authorities. ↩

3. In 2023 to 2024 106 were within 2.5% of the NFF values. ↩

4. For any factor where a local authority was not using a value within 2.5% of the value used in the NFF in 2023 to 2024 they were required to move 10% closer to the NFF value. ↩

5. For year groups 1 to 11, ‘typical’ means that the first census on which a pupil is recorded as attending the school (or its predecessors) is the October census. ‘Not typical’ means that the first census a pupil is recorded as attending the school is a January or May census. For the reception year, ‘typical’ means the first census is either October or January. ↩