School Funding

Bridget Phillipson Excerpts

Wednesday 19th November 2025 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Education (Bridget Phillipson)]

Today, I can confirm the publication of the provisional funding allocations for mainstream schools and local authorities in 2026-27 through the schools and central school services national funding formulas.

Provisional funding for mainstream schools through the schools NFF will total £50.9 billion in 2026-27. To simplify the funding system, the 2026-27 schools NFF includes funding for pay and national insurance contributions costs that were previously allocated outside the NFF. The funding for teachers’ pay has been converted to a full-year equivalent, so that it will support the costs of the 2025 teachers’ pay award across the whole 2026-27 funding year.

On top of this rolled-in funding, the core factor values in the schools NFF are rising by 2.1%, to increase the funding available to schools. Average per pupil funding in the NFF will rise to £6,771 in 2026-27. The funding “floor” will be set at 0%, continuing to ensure that the NFF protects schools against cash-terms reductions in their pupil-led per pupil funding. The NFF will continue to apply minimum per pupil funding levels.

Local authorities will continue to be responsible for operating local funding formulae, which will determine the funding that individual schools and academies in their area receive. The actual funding that schools see will therefore, in many cases, diverge from the NFF allocations that we are publishing today. To support moves to a more consistent funding system, we will continue to require those local authorities which are not already “mirroring” the NFF in their local formulae to move closer to the NFF.

The central school services block funds local authorities for the ongoing responsibilities they continue to have for all schools, and some historical spending commitments that local authorities face. The central school services NFF for 2026-27 includes funding for pay and national insurance contributions costs that were previously allocated outside the NFF.

Updated allocations of schools and central school services funding for 2026-27 will be published to the usual timescale in December through the dedicated schools grant allocations, taking account of the latest pupil data at that point.

The publication of high needs allocations will follow by the end of the year.

[HCWS1069]