Schools National Funding Formula

Annex B

Schools National Funding Formula

The Secretary of State announced the final composition of the Schools National Funding Formula on 14th September 2017. Figure 1 shows the funding factors that will be used to calculate the National Funding Formula (NFF).

It will be a ‘Soft’ NFF in 2018/19 and 2019/20 where the NFF will be used to determine allocations for each local authority but the funding allocations for schools will continue to be determined by local authorities in consultation with schools and Schools Forum.

It remains an objective of the DfE to move to a ‘Hard’ NFF where schools will be funded by the NFF, but there is currently no date set for moving to a ‘Hard’ NFF.

Figure 1 – Schools National Funding Formula

The primary / secondary funding differential has been set at the English average of 1:1.29 which compares to Essex’s current ratio of 1:1.31. The effect of this for Essex schools is that it transfers the balance of funding towards primary schools

A key design principle of the NFF is to maximise the proportion to pupil-led factors (rows A and B in Figure 1).

The Final National Funding Formula

Figure 2 shows the final national funding formula including the unit values, total funding allocated and the proportion of funding allocated through each factor.

Figure 2 – The Final National Funding Formula

Funding Factors / Primary
Unit
Values £ / Secondary
Unit Values
£ / Total Funding £m / % of Core Total
Basic per-pupil funding / 24,183 / 72.9
Primary AWPU / 2,747 / 12,595 / 38.0
KS3 AWPU / 3,863 / 6,668 / 20.1
KS4 AWPU / 4,386 / 4,734 / 14.3
Minimum per Pupil Funding / 185 / 0.6
Additional Needs Funding / 5,906 / 17.8
Deprivation / 3,022 / 8.1
Current FSM / 440 / 440 / 464 / 1.4
FSM Ever 6 / 540 / 765 / 1,267 / 3.8
IDACI Band F / 200 / 290 / 174 / 0.5
IDACI Band E / 240 / 390 / 196 / 0.6
IDACI Band D / 360 / 515 / 239 / 0.7
IDACI Band C / 390 / 560 / 225 / 0.7
IDACI Band B / 420 / 600 / 300 / 0.9
IDACI Band A / 575 / 810 / 157 / 0.5
Low Prior Attainment / 1,050 / 1,555 / 2,458 / 7.4
English as an Additional Language / 515 / 1,385 / 404 / 1.2
Mobility / 22 / 0.1
School-led Funding / 3,077 / 9.3
Lump Sum / 110,000 / 110,000 / 2,267 / 6.8
Sparsity / 25,000 / 65,000 / 375 / 1.1
Premises / 610 / 1.8
Explicit Growth / 174 / 0.5
Area Cost Adjustment / 824
Core Funding / 33,166
Funding Floor / 624
Total / 33,790

Premises funding includes split site, rates, exceptional premises factors and PFI funding. With the exception of PFI which is uplifted by the retail price index, premise factors are funded at the same rate as 2017/18.

Mobility is also funded at the same rate as 2017/18, so Essex schools will not receive an allocation as this funding factor is not used in the Essex Formula for Funding Schools.

Area Cost Adjustment

The NFF includes an area cost adjustment (ACA) to reflect variations in labour market costs. Table 1 shows the ACA applied to the NFF for Essex schools.

Table 1 – Area Cost Adjustment for Essex

Districts / ACA
Basildon, Brentwood, Epping Forest and Harlow / 1.03710
Braintree, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Maldon, Rochford, Tendering and Uttlesford / 1.00347

The ACA is applied to AWPU, additional pupil needs, lump sum and sparsity funding.

Funding Floor

The funding floor will provide for an increase of at least 0.5% per pupil in 2018/19 and at least 1% per pupil by 2019/20 for all schools compared to their 2017/18 baseline except for new and growing schools which will be their per-pupil funding if they were full.

Gains

The unit values above will apply in 2018/19 and 2019/20. The maximum level of gains in 2018/19 is 3% per pupil and a further 3% in 2019/20

Minimum per Pupil Funding

The DfE are committed to ensure the lowest funded schools attract the minimum per pupil funding levels of £3,500 for primary schools and £4,800 for secondary schools in 2019/20. As a transition primary schools will receive a minimum per pupil of £3,300 and secondary schools £4,600 in 2018/19.

High Needs National Funding Formula

The High Needs NFF is a means of distributing high needs funding to local authorities and is not a methodology of distributing funding to schools.

Changes in Funding Schools with Enhanced Provisions

Currently pupils in enhanced provisions are removed from the pupil roll and are funded through the High Needs Block. Place funding is £10,000 and top-up funding is based upon the needs of pupils.
For 2018/19 the pupils will be funded through the Schools NFF and place funding will be reduced to £6,000 per place. Primary schools will not generate sufficient funding in the NFF to offset the reduction in place funding of £4,000 per place. Secondary schools gain sufficient funding in the NFF to offset the decrease.

The Authority will review top-up funding for primary enhanced provisions to ensure they are not financially penalised by this change.