The government has announced they will be providing schools with additional funding of almost £1.2 billion in the financial year 2024/25 to support with overall costs. The funding has been calculated at national level to fund the 2024/25 teacher pay award and the support staff pay offer, which is still under negotiation. Almost £1.1 billion of the funding will be administered through the Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG).
£97m has been allocated to early years and post 16 provision. The additional funding for early years settings (£34m) will be distributed through the early years budget grant (EYBG) and will reflect the methodology used in the early years TPAG funding in 2023/24. We await further details on how the post 16 allocation (£63m) will be distributed.
School teachers’ pay award
The government has accepted the recommendation of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) with teachers’ pay set to rise by 5.5% in 2024/25. A consultation on the government’s response to the STRB recommendation will follow and it is anticipated that confirmation of the final pay deal for teachers may extend beyond September 2024.
Are the pay awards fully funded?
The government has confirmed that the funding has been calculated to… ‘’fully fund, at a national level, the teacher pay award and the support staff pay offer in financial year 2024-25, over and above the available headroom in existing school budgets overall’’
In previously published guidance the department had estimated mainstream schools could increase their spending by a further 1.2%, or around £600m at the national level in 2024/25, and therefore some of the increase will have to be funded from schools’ budgets.
Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) 2024 to 2025
The CSBG funding will be split across mainstream schools, special schools and alternative provision and will be paid initially to cover the 7 month period of September 2024 to March 2025.
Mainstream locally maintained schools should expect the funding in November 2024 and academies in December 2024. Schools will receive one payment to cover the 2024/25 financial year. Current guidance states that from 2025-2026, the new grant funding will be incorporated into core budget allocations via the national funding formula (NFF) for mainstream primary, secondary and all through schools.
Special schools and AP schools will be allocated funding via the local authority, with confirmation of the first payment of two allocations expected in September 2024. This allocation will be based on place numbers published and available to ESFA by July 2024, with the relevant area cost adjustment applied.
Funding Rates:
Mainstream schools
ESFA have based the CSBG funding rates on factors used in previous grants:
- a basic per-pupil rate with different rates for primary, key stage 3, and key stage 4
- a lump sum paid to all schools, regardless of pupil numbers
- a per-pupil rate for pupils who are recorded as having been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years (FSM6), with different rates for primary and secondary pupils
An area cost adjustment (ACA) is applied to the funding rates. ESFA have used the same ACAs as the schools national funding formula for 2024 to 2025 area cost adjustment for national funding formula: technical note.
The base funding rates for 2024 to 2025 financial year are:
- a basic per-pupil rate of £76 for primary pupils, including pupils in reception
- a basic per-pupil rate of £108 for key stage 3 pupils
- a basic per-pupil rate of £122 for key stage 4 pupils
- a lump sum of £2,900
- a FSM6 per-pupil rate of £70 per eligible primary pupil
- a FSM6 per-pupil rate of £100 per eligible secondary pupil
Special schools and AP schools
The funding rate for the 2024 to 2025 financial year is £610 per place.
Funding Calculator for mainstream schools
It is anticipated that school level allocations for the 2024/25 financial year (September 24- March 25) will be published in September. The allocations will be calculated by multiplying the relevant funding rates by the pupil count, and FSM6 pupil count, using data from the October 2023 census.
Ahead of the confirmed allocations a ‘Core Schools Budget Grant’ (CSBG) calculator has been provided for mainstream schools and academies to estimate the funding they will receive.
Academies should note that current guidance states there will be further funding for April to August 25 to cover the period before the grant is moved into the budget allocations through the national funding formula.
Full ESFA guidance for schools and local authorities on the CSBG methodology is available.
Please contact the Finance Helpline 0300 1231420 option 1, finance@schoolschoice.org if you have any queries.
