Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the guidance issued to local education authorities on funding schools for in-year (a) transfers of pupils and (b) growth in pupils on roll.

The department has allocated £242 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to local authorities in 2024/25 through the dedicated schools grant, which local authorities can use to support schools managing significant growth in pupil numbers. We allocate this funding to local authorities based on the actual growth in pupil numbers they experienced the previous year.

The department publishes guidance on the operation of growth funding at a local level, which sets out mandatory minimum requirements for local authorities in the use of this funding. This guidance is reviewed each year. The guidance for 2024/25 is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/growth-and-falling-rolls-fund-guidance-2024-to-2025.

The mobility factor in the schools national funding formula (NFF) also provides funding to local authorities to support schools with high levels of pupil mobility. This factor allocates funding to schools with a high proportion of pupils who have an entry date in the last three years which is not typical. In most cases this would be where a pupil’s first recorded appearance on the school’s roll was other than the October census.

In addition, the department publishes guidance for local authorities on the funding arrangements relating to pupils who are permanently excluded from one school and then move to another school. This guidance is within the Schools Funding Operational Guidance, which is also updated each year. The 2024/25 guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/schools-operational-guide-2024-to-2025.