How schools are funded

Last reviewed on 10 January 2023
See updates
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 41151

Get a whistle-stop tour of how your school is funded, including what additional streams of funding are available, so you're clear on what elements make up your school finances.

Article tools

Viewing article for:
tick-icon Maintained schools Academies
Maintained schools
Academies

Contents

  1. The national funding formula (NFF)
  2. Mainstream schools additional grant for 2023-24
  3. How maintained special schools are funded
  4. Other streams of funding

As a governor, you don't need to understand the intricacies of how schools are funded or how funding formulas work. 

However, the board is responsible for financial oversight of the school. This overview will help you understand your school's financial position. 

The national funding formula (NFF)

Note: this section applies to mainstream schools only – if you're in a special school, your funding is allocated differently (see the section below).

LAs allocate your school's core budget using a local funding formula

Local funding formulas are decided in collaboration with your local schools forum (a

Also in this topic: School funding
Show more
Top articles

More from The Key

The Key has taken great care in publishing this article. However, some of the article's content and information may come from or link to third party sources whose quality, relevance, accuracy, completeness, currency and reliability we do not guarantee. Accordingly, we will not be held liable for any use of or reliance placed on this article's content or the links or downloads it provides. This article may contain information sourced from public sector bodies and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.