Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) provides revenue funding for local authorities, to support expenditure on schools, early years and children and young people with high needs. The grant is made under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. The grant is paid in to local authorities to support the schools budget it is the main source of income for the schools.
Local authorities are responsible for determining the split of the grant between central expenditure and the individual schools budget (ISB) in conjunction with local schools forums. Local authorities are responsible for allocating the ISB to individual schools in accordance with the local schools’ funding formula.
The DSG is made oup of 4 distinct blocks of funding, each using different methods of calculating the awarded amount and each to be used for specific purposes.
DSG Blocks
Schools Block
The majority of the Schools Block is allocated to individual primary and secondary school budgets to pay for children and young people’s education according to the National Funding Formula (NFF).
The Primary Unit of Funding (PUFs) for each local authority are multiplied by:
- the number of pupils in reception to year group 6 from the October 2023 school census plus
- pupils aged 4 to 10 not assigned to a year group from the October 2023 school census
The Secondary Unit of Funding (SUFs) for each local authority are multiplied by:
- the number of pupils in year groups 7 to 11 from the October 2023 school census plus
- pupils aged 11 to 15 not assigned to a year group from the October 2023 school census
*PUF and SUF values are calculated using the NFF and give a per pupil amount which takes into account 13 factors e.g. location of LA, health, population
High Needs Block
Is comprised of 2 main components-
Place funding for High Needs. Place funding is allocated as an annual amount of core high needs funding for schools and colleges. Place funding is allocated at a standard rate for a number of places, reflecting the number of high needs placements which commissioning local authorities expect to make in the coming year. The funded amount is currently set at £6000 or £10000, depending on the type of place.
Top up funding is the funding required over and above the place funding a school or college receives to enable a pupil or student with high needs to participate in education and learning. This is paid by the commissioning local authority (or sometimes schools in the case of AP) and should reflect the costs of additional support to meet the individual pupil or student’s needs.
Early Years Block
Early Years funding (to pay for the education of 2-3 year olds) is calculated using 4 criteria
- Funding for the free early years childcare entitlements
- Early years pupil premium (EYPP)
- Early years disability access fund (DAF)
- Early years supplementary funding or maintained nursery schools
Central Schools Services Block
The CSSB provides funding for local authorities to carry out central functions on behalf of maintained schools and academies, comprising 2 distinct elements
It is calculated by multiplying the CSSB units of funding by the number of pupils recorded in the October 2023 school census: in reception to year group 11, and aged 4 to 15 not assigned to a year group
DSG Timeline
The following is a high level timeline of significant events in the DSG cycle, the dates used are illustrative and are from the 23/24 DSG period
timeline
title <c>DSG cycle
Oct 23 : Pupil Census published - <br>DSG calculations are based on Pupil Census
Dec 23 : DfE announces DSG - <br>Includes Schools block, EY block, High Needs block and guidance updates
Feb 23 : DfE issues High Needs places in AR / Free Schools
Mar 23 : DSG March publication for upcoming budget period is published. <br>Includes expected recoupment amounts. (30/03/23 for the period 23-34) LA's are instructed to align the s251 budget return with this DSG publication
May 23 : s251 Budget Submission.<br>27th May 23 Collect open for s251 budget returns, submission deadline is 9th May
July 23 : DSG 23/24 Updated. <br>Updated for in-year HN deductions. EY block update
Aug 23 : s251 Budget Publication. <br>28th August 23 the s251 23/24 planned expenditure return is published
Mar 24 : DSG 23/24 Updated. <br>DSG is re-published with the final updates for in-year recoupment and HN deductions. LA's are instructed to align the s251 outturn return with this amended DSG publication
Aug 24 : s251 outturn submission. <br>27th August 24 the s251 expenditure (outturn) return for 23/24 is submitted
Dec 24 : s251 outturn publication
Use of DSG in FBIT
Given that the DSG is the principal source of funding for schools it is used by Local Authorities to determine the amount that each school can spend in an academic year and is therefore used to set the school budget. The value will be used in the FBIT service to compare to the actual amount spent by schools in each local authority to benchmark the alignment to the DSG.
Derivation of LA level DSG recoupments
DSG funding breakdowns are reported per LA. Generally DSG breakdowns can be added to breakdowns already existing in FBIT (from S251), however the Mainstream academies need to be further split into primary and secondary deductions to be added to existing categories. The split is achieved by proxy using the ratio of funding reported in the high_needs_places file, specifically converting the Primary/Secondary Places at £6k/£10k and ...mainstream free schools...16 to 18 fields to a ratio which can split the deduction found in the DSG.
| Field | Derivation | Added To |
|---|---|---|
| DSGHospitalPlaceFunding | Total hospital education deduction (£s) | OutturnTotalHospitalServices |
| DSGNurseryPlaceFunding | This is 0 (TBC) | - |
| DSGAPAcademyPlaceFunding | AP academies (Pre-16 SEN/Post-16 SEN/Pre-16 AP) | OutturnPlaceFundingAlternativeProvision |
| DSGSENAcademyPlaceFunding | Special academies (Pre-16 SEN/Post-16 SEN/Pre-16 AP) + Special free schools (Pre-16 SEN/Post-16 SEN/Pre-16 AP) | OutturnPlaceFundingSpecial |
| DSGPrimaryAcademyPlaceFunding | Mainstream academies (Pre-16 SEN@6k/Pre-16 SEN@10k/Post-16 SEN/Pre-16 AP) * Primary place ratio from high needs places | OutturnPlaceFundingPrimary |
| DSGSecondaryAcademyPlaceFunding | Mainstream academies (Pre-16 SEN@6k/Pre-16 SEN@10k/Post-16 SEN/Pre-16 AP) * Secondary place ratio from high needs places | OutturnPlaceFundingSecondary |
| DSGAPAcademyPlaceFunding + DSGSENAcademyPlaceFunding | OutturnTotalPlaceFunding |
Data Source
As shown in the timeline above the DSG is published at several points through the reporting cycle. 2 of the publications will be ingested into FBIT to align with the s251 datasets, these will the early March variant (start of period version) and the late March version at the end of the period i.e. end of March in the following calendar year.
Publication site