Financial year 2022-23

LA and school expenditure

Data guidance

Published

Description

This document describes the data included in the School Finance in England National Statistics release’s underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in a new tab) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data (opens in a new tab).

The methodology document should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

The Statistical Publication: ‘LA and School Expenditure’ provides the latest information at national, regional and local level on the expenditure on schools, education and children's and young people's services by local authorities. Alongside the local authority spending, the release also provides a detailed breakdown of income and expenditure by schools, with aggregations to the local authority, regional and national level. The publication summarises the information that was collected via the summer 2023 Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) and S251 Outturn collections. It supersedes the December 2022 data release. 

The CFR data is also available at an individual school level via the Schools Financial Benchmarking (opens in a new tab)website. 

This publication includes information on:

  • Local authority spending on schools and other education - time-series giving the detailed breakdown of spending by local authorities split by school-phase and overall spending area (e.g. individual schools budget, expenditure on free school meals, SEN support etc).
  • Local authority spending on children's and young people's services - time-series giving the detailed breakdown of spending by local authorities split by provision sector (e.g. own, private, voluntary) and spending area (e.g. sure start centres, family services, youth justice etc).
  • Schools' income and expenditure - time-series giving the detailed breakdown of LA maintained schools income and expenditure by school phase and financial area (e.g. staff, estates and buildings, etc)
  • Schools' revenue balances - time-series giving the overall financial balance data for LA maintained schools and overall numbers of schools in surplus and deficit.

Rounded data files contain national level data rounded to the nearest £ million. These files are intended to provide national level summaries of financial data. Unrounded data files contain local authority, regional and national unrounded financial data. 

File formats and conventions

The data files are provided in comma-separated values format, which is compatible with standard spreadsheet software such as Excel.

The following symbols are used in the underlying data files as follows:

: Not available = this information has not been collected or there are no estimates available at this level of aggregation.

N/A Not available = this is normally where a statistic cannot be produced. For example where a denominator is not available to produce a percentage. 

z Not applicable = Only to be used when an observation is not applicable (e.g. in tables of employment where people under 16 cannot legally be employed).

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Income of LA maintained schools - national rounded summary

Filename
cfr_income_national_summary_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains national level rounded data on income of local authority maintained schools. It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
incomeIncome (£ million)
income_descriptionCategory of income
income_per_pupilIncome per pupil
school_phasePhase of school - Filter by school type
Footnotes
  1. Includes schools making a part year return as they converted to academies part way through the financial year.

Expenditure of LA maintained schools - national rounded summary

Filename
cfr_expenditure_national_summary_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains national level rounded data on expenditure of local authority maintained schools. It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
expenditureExpenditure (£ million)
expenditure_descriptionCategory of expenditure
expenditure_per_pupilExpenditure per pupil
school_phasePhase of school - Filter by school type

Revenue reserves of LA maintained schools - national rounded summary

Filename
cfr_revenue_reserves_national_rounded_data_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains national level rounded data on revenue reserves of local authority maintained schools. It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
average_revenue_balanceAverage revenue balance per school
committed_revenue_balancesCommitted revenue balances (B01) (£million)
community_focussed_school_revenue_balanceCommunity-focused school revenue balances (B06) (£million)
devolved_formula_capital_balanceDevolved formula capital balance (B03) (£million)
number_schoolsNumber of schools making a Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) return
number_schools_with_deficitNumber of schools with a negative revenue balance
number_schools_with_surplusNumber of schools with a surplus revenue balance
number_schools_with_surplus_over_thresholdNumber of schools with a surplus over the threshold
opening_capital_balanceOpening capital balance (OB03) (£million)
opening_community_focussed_revenue_balanceOpening community-focused revenue balance (OB02) (£million)
opening_pupil_focussed_revenue_balanceOpening pupil-focused revenue balance (OB01) (£million)
other_capital_balancesOther capital balances (B05) (£million)
outstanding_balance_of_capital_loans_to_schoolOutstanding balance of capital loans to schol (B07) (£million)
pc_schools_with_deficitPercentage of schools with a negative revenue balance (deficit)
pc_schools_with_surplusPercentage of schools with a surplus revenue balance
pc_schools_with_surplus_over_thresholdPercentage of schools with a surplus over the threshold
revenue_balance_as_pc_total_incomeRevenue balance as a percentage of total income
school_over_threshold_av_per_schoolAverage surplus per school for schools over the threshold
school_phasePhase of school
school_surplus_over_thresholdTotal surplus of schools over the threshold (£million)
total_incomeTotal income (£million)
total_revenue_balanceTotal revenue balance (£million)
total_revenue_reserve_schools_deficitTotal revenue balance of schools with a deficit (£million)
total_revenue_reserve_schools_surplusTotal revenue balance of schools with a surplus (£million)
uncommitted_revenue_balancesUncommitted revenue balances (B02) (£million)
Footnotes
  1. Includes schools making a part year return as they converted to academies part way through the financial year.

LA expenditure on schools, other education and community - national rounded summary

Filename
s251_alleducation_national_rounded.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains information on expenditure on education made by local authorities. Data is at national level and rounded to the nearest £ million. Data was collected via the S251 Outturn return made to the department in autumn 2023. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
category_of_expenditureCategory of expenditure - Filter by expenditure category
early_years_establishmentsSpend on early years establishments (£ million)
gross_expenditureTotal gross expenditure (£ million)
incomeIncome (£ million)
net_expenditureTotal net expenditure (£ million)
net_per_capita_expenditurePer pupil net expenditure (£)
post_16Spend on post 16 establishments (£ million)
primary_schoolsSpend on primary schools (£ million)
pupil_referral_units_and_alt_provisionSpend on pupil referal units and AP (£ million)
secondary_schoolsSpend on secondary schools (£ million)
sen_and_special_schoolsSpend on special schools (£ million)

LA expenditure on children's services - national rounded summary

Filename
s251_childrens_young_peoples_services_national.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains information on expenditure on children's services made by local authorities. Data is at national level and rounded to the nearest £ million. Data was collected via the S251 Outturn return made to the department in autumn 2023. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
description_of_expenditureCategory of expenditure - Filter by expenditure category
grants_inside_AEFGrants inside of aggregate external finance (£ million)
grants_outside_AEFGrants outside of aggregate external finance (£ million)
incomeIncome (£ million)
net_current_expenditureTotal net current expenditure (£ million)
net_revenue_expenditureNet revenue expenditure (£ million)
other_public_sector_provisionSpend on other public sector provision (£ million)
own_provisionSpend on LAs own provision (£ million)
per_capita_net_current_spendPer capita net current expenditure (£)
private_provisionSpend on private provision (£ million)
total_expenditureTotal gross expenditure (£ million)
voluntary_provisionSpend on voluntary provision (£ million)

Income of LA maintained schools - unrounded data

Filename
cfr_income_la_regional_national_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
Local authority; National; Regional
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains unrounded data on income of local authority maintained schools. It includes local authority, regional and national data.  It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
incomeIncome
income_descriptionCategory of Income
income_per_pupilIncome per pupil
school_phasePhase of school - Filter by school type
Footnotes
  1. Includes schools making a part year return as they converted to academies part way through the financial year.
  2. There are a small number of local authorities with no LA maintained secondary schools, all are academies. There are also authorities returning no nursery schools, pupil referral units or special schools. Full details are in the methodology document. These local authorities will be uncoloured in the maps above.

Expenditure of LA maintained schools - unrounded data

Filename
cfr_expenditure_la_regional_national_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
Local authority; National; Regional
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains unrounded data on expenditure of local authority maintained schools. It includes local authority, regional and national data.  It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
expenditureExpenditure
expenditure_descriptionCategory of expenditure
expenditure_per_pupilExpenditure per pupil
school_phasePhase of school - Filter by school type
Footnotes
  1. There are a small number of local authorities with no LA maintained secondary schools, all are academies. There are also authorities returning no nursery schools, pupil referral units or special schools. Full details are in the methodology document. These local authorities will be uncoloured in the maps above.
  2. Expenditure per pupil is based on the number of pupils on roll as at the January 2023 School Census. PRUs see more variation in pupil numbers through the course of the year than other school types. Funding for PRUs is based on number of available places.

Revenue reserves of LA maintained schools - unrounded data

Filename
cfr_revenue_reserve_la_regional_national_data_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
Local authority; National; Regional
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains unrounded data on revenue reserves of local authority maintained schools. It includes local authority, regional and national data.  It was collected via the Consistent Financial reporting data collection. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
average_revenue_balanceAverage revenue balance per school
committed_revenue_balancesCommitted revenue balances (B01)
community_focussed_school_revenue_balanceCommunity-focused school revenue balances (B06)
devolved_formula_capital_balanceDevolved formula capital balance (B03)
number_schoolsNumber of schools making a Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) return
number_schools_with_deficitNumber of schools with a negative revenue balance
number_schools_with_surplusNumber of schools with a surplus revenue balance
number_schools_with_surplus_over_thresholdNumber of schools with a surplus over the threshold
opening_capital_balanceOpening capital balance (OB03)
opening_community_focussed_revenue_balanceOpening community-focused revenue balance (OB02)
opening_pupil_focussed_revenue_balanceOpening pupil-focused revenue balance (OB01)
other_capital_balancesOther capital balances (B05)
outstanding_balance_of_capital_loans_to_schoolOutstanding balance of capital loans to schol (B07)
pc_schools_with_deficitPercentage of schools with a negative revenue balance (deficit)
pc_schools_with_surplusPercentage of schools with a surplus revenue balance
pc_schools_with_surplus_over_thresholdPercentage of schools with a surplus over the threshold
revenue_balance_as_pc_total_incomeRevenue balance as a percentage of total income
school_over_threshold_av_per_schoolAverage surplus per school for schools over the threshold
school_phasePhase of school
school_surplus_over_thresholdTotal surplus of schools over the threshold
total_incomeTotal income
total_revenue_balanceTotal revenue balance
total_revenue_reserve_schools_deficitTotal revenue balance of schools with a deficit
total_revenue_reserve_schools_surplusTotal revenue balance of schools with a surplus
uncommitted_revenue_balancesUncommitted revenue balances (B02)
Footnotes
  1. Includes schools making a part year return as they converted to academies part way through the financial year.
  2. There are a small number of local authorities with no LA maintained secondary schools, all are academies. There are also authorities returning no nursery schools, pupil referral units or special schools. Full details are in the methodology document. These local authorities will be uncoloured in the maps above.

LA expenditure on schools, other education and community - unrounded data

Filename
s251_alleducation_la_regional_national.csv
Geographic levels
Local authority; National; Regional
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains information on expenditure on education made by local authorities. Data is at local authority, regional and national level and is unrounded. Data was collected via the S251 Outturn return made to the department in autumn 2023. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
category_of_expenditureCategory of expenditure - Filter by expenditure category
early_years_establishmentsSpend on early years establishments
gross_expenditureTotal gross expenditure
incomeIncome
net_expenditureTotal net expenditure
net_per_capita_expenditurePer pupil net expenditure
post_16Spend on post 16 establishments
primary_schoolsSpend on primary schools
pupil_referral_units_and_alt_provisionSpend on pupil referal units and AP
secondary_schoolsSpend on secondary schools
sen_and_special_schoolsSpend on special schools

LA expenditure on children's services - unrounded data

Filename
s251_childrens_young_peoples_services_la_regional_national.csv
Geographic levels
Local authority; National; Regional
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

This file contains information on expenditure on education made by local authorities. Data is at local authority, regional and national level and is unrounded. Data was collected via the S251 Outturn return made to the department in autumn 2023. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
description_of_expenditureCategory of expenditure - Filter by expenditure category
grants_inside_AEFGrants inside of aggregate external finance
grants_outside_AEFGrants outside of aggregate external finance
incomeIncome
net_current_expenditureTotal net current expenditure
net_revenue_expenditureNet revenue expenditure
other_public_sector_provisionSpend on other public sector provision
own_provisionSpend on LAs own provision
per_capita_net_current_spendPer capita net current expenditure
private_provisionSpend on private provision
total_expenditureTotal gross expenditure
voluntary_provisionSpend on voluntary provision

ANNEX - Headline figures

Filename
headline_key_figures_16jan.csv
Geographic levels
National
Time period
2015-16 to 2022-23
Content

 These are the national headline figures, rounded to the nearest billion and include both financial data for LA maintained schools and financial data for local authorities. 

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable nameVariable description
number_school_surplusNumber of LA maintained schools with surplus revenue reserve
number_schools_deficitNumber of LA maintained schools in deficit
pc_schools_deficitPercentage of LA maintained schools in deficit
pc_schools_surplusPercentage of LA maintained schools with surplus revenue reserve
total_childrens_services_gross_expenditre_by_laExpenditure by local authorities on children's services (£ billion)
total_childrens_services_income_by_laIncome of local authorities for children's services (£ billion)
total_childrens_services_net_expenditure_by_laNet expenditure by local authorities on children's services (£ billion)
total_expenditure_billionTotal expenditure of LA maintained schools (£ billion)
total_expenditure_ppTotal expenditure per pupil for LA maintained schools
total_income_billionTotal income of LA maintained schools (£ billion)
total_income_ppTotal income per pupil for LA maintained schools
total_other_education_gross_expenditre_by_laExpenditure by local authorities on other education (£ billion)
total_other_education_income_by_laIncome of local authorities for other education (£ billion)
total_other_education_net_expenditure_by_laNet expenditure by local authorities on other education (£ billion)
total_schools_gross_expenditre_by_laExpenditure by local authorities on schools (£ billion)
total_schools_income_by_laIncome of local authorities for schools (£ billion)
total_schools_net_expenditure_by_laNet expenditure by local authorities on schools (£ billion)