Schools: Finance

In the 2024/25 financial year, the government announced almost £1.1 billion through the Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) to support schools with overall costs. This matches what the department had calculated is needed to fully fund, at a national level, the teacher and support staff pay awards in the 2024/25 financial year, after accounting for the available headroom in schools’ existing budgets.

In the 2025/26 financial year, schools are receiving further funding to cover the remaining costs of the 2024 teachers’ pay award. Funding for this will be sourced from within the £2.3 billion of additional schools funding announced at the Autumn Budget 2024.

For mainstream schools, the 2024/25 financial year CSBG has been incorporated into the schools national funding formula (NFF) in the 2025/26 financial year, ensuring that it forms an ongoing part of schools’ core budgets. The NFF is increasing schools’ funding by 2.23% per pupil on average in the 2025/26 financial year, compared to the 2024/25 financial year. This includes a 1.28% increase to ensure that the 2024 pay awards continue to be fully funded at national level in the 2025/26 financial year

For special schools and alternative provision (AP), £90 million of the overall £1 billion increase in high needs funding allows the special and AP schools element of the 2024/25 CSBG to rise to a full-year equivalent of £235 million, which is being incorporated with the other teachers’ pay and pensions grants into a single CSBG for special and AP schools in the 2025/26 financial year.

Local authorities are receiving £11 million in the 2024/25 financial year to cover centrally-employed teachers costs through the CSBG. In 2025/26, this will rise to £18 million and will be delivered through the Central School Services Block.