Planned LA and school expenditure
Local authority (LA) spending plans for education, children's services and social care.
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Background information
This release contains information on local authority (LA) spending plans for education, children's services (including youth justice), early years, and high needs place funding for the financial year 2024-25.
LAs are required under section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (opens in new tab) to prepare and submit a budget statement to the Department for Education each year. The Section 251 budget data presented in this publication gives the data as reported by, confirmed and signed off by, local authorities. The figures included here are therefore an accurate reflection of the 2024-25 budget data as returned by LAs. For more information please see the methodology.
Please note that all figures included in this release are presented in cash terms and are not adjusted for inflation.
The ‘Explore data’ under the ‘Quick links’ header to the right contains files that underpin this release. These include all data as returned by local authorities. Users can interrogate these data files, create tables and analyse the data for themselves. The national files contain figures rounded to the nearest £ million while unrounded data which covers all local authorities.
The Department for Education has been publishing information on planned LA and school expenditure for education, children's services (including youth justice), early years, and high needs place funding since 2001-02. The aim of this publication is to provide information on local authority spending plans both at national level and for each local authority. We have reviewed the value and quality of this publication and invited feedback from users during late 2024/early 2025.
Given low engagement with the release and feedback, we are ceasing publication of this official statistics series. The data from the section 251 budget collection will continue to be made available annually on the guidance page for section 251 budget (opens in new tab), in the data tool which provides national, regional, and local authority data along with a statistical neighbour’s option.
Headline facts and figures
Planned expenditure on the schools budget
Local authorities' in England planned net expenditure on the schools budget in 2024-25 is £63.4 billion; £5.6 billion higher (9.7%), in cash terms, than in 2023-24. This takes into account planned gross expenditure of £63.5 billion and income of £0.1 billion.
This expenditure on schools accounts for 79.7% of LA planned spending on all education and children's and young people's services; a slightly smaller percentage than in previous years.
Of this planned £63.4 billion net expenditure on the schools budget:
- £51.3 billion (80.8%) is for individual school budgets
- £2.1 billion (3.3%) is for high needs place funding
- £10.1 billion (15.9%) is for services funded through the schools budget, this includes high needs top-up funding, behavioural support, bilingual support, museum and library services, SEN support, hospital education services, and educational welfare.
These figures are prior to academy recoupment. Recoupment is a method of adjusting a dedicated schools grant (information on DSG is available here (opens in new tab)) to take account of the conversion of a maintained school into an academy. In 2024-25, it was planned that the total sum to be recouped from academies would be £27.9 billion, with a further £0.9 billion recouped from academies' high needs place funding.
i) Individual schools budget per pupil
In 2024-25, the £51.3 billion planned net expenditure on individual school budgets equates to £5,731 per pupil. This is £502 (9.6%) higher in cash terms than in 2023-24.
As in previous years, planned net expenditure per pupil remains highest in Inner London, where staffing costs are higher. In 2024-25, the planned expenditure on individual school budgets was over £7,000 per pupil for 8 Inner London local authorities, with the average per pupil for the region being £7,065.
ii) High needs place funding
In 2024-25, LAs planned to spend £2.1 billion on high needs place funding within the individual schools budget.
This includes high needs place funding for special schools, PRUs, and hospital schools, plus special units and resourced provision attached to nursery, primary and secondary schools. It includes the place funding for the equivalent academies, plus the high needs place funding for maintained special schools and special academies and free schools with sixth forms plus special units attached to secondary schools that include 16 to 19-year-old pupils.
As expected, the majority of this spend is targeted towards special schools, where planned expenditure is £1.6 billion (77.0%). Pupil referral units account for 12.2% of this planned expenditure with £254.6 million.
iii) Planned expenditure for each school phase
Within the Section 251 budget return, LAs return information on planned gross expenditure for each school phase. Information on expected income is, however, not returned on the same basis. Therefore net expenditure by phase cannot be calculated and this section includes gross planned expenditure only.
Gross planned expenditure on the total school budget has increased between 2023-24 and 2024-25 for all school phases:
- For early years, planned expenditure increased from £4.1 billion to £6.4 billion in 2024-25 (55.7%). This increase in early years planned expenditure is in line with the changes in early years entitlements, for more information see section (iv) Other spend within the school budget.
- For primary schools, planned expenditure increased from £24.1 billion to £25.4 billion (5.2%).
- For secondary schools, planned expenditure increased from £22.2 billion to £23.8 billion (7.3%).
- For special schools, planned expenditure increased from £5.8 billion to £6.1 billion (5.6%).
- For pupil referral units, planned expenditure increased from £785 million to £846 million (7.7%).
- For post 16 establishments, planned expenditure increased from £676 million to £730 million (8.1%).
iv) Other spend within the school budget
In addition to the planned expenditure for individual school budgets and high needs place funding, there is a further £10.1 billion of planned expenditure funded through the schools budget. This £10.1 billion is for central and other services including further SEN funding, behavioural support, bilingual support, museum and library services, and educational welfare. The majority is planned to be spent on high needs with:
- £9.1 billion (90.4%) planned expenditure on high needs, this includes top-up funding, additional targeted funding, SEN support services, hospital education services, other alternative provision services, support for inclusion, direct payments for SEN and disability and therapies and other health related services. It is funding in addition to the high needs place funding details in section (ii) above.
- £622.2 million (6.2%) planned expenditure on central services funded through the schools budget, this includes funding for pupil growth, infant class sizes, the falling rolls fund, fees to independent schools for pupils without SEN, education welfare services, central support services and statutory/regulatory duties.
- £249.1 million (2.5%) on total funding for early years contingency and centrally retained spending for each of the following entitlements: 3 and 4-year-olds, 2-year-old disadvantaged, 2-year-old working parent and 9-month-old to 2-year-old.
- £95.5 million (0.9%) planned expenditure for de-delegated items for primary and secondary schools, this includes contingencies, behavioural support services, funding for underperforming pupils from ethnic minority groups and bilingual learners, determining free school meals eligibility, insurance, services to schools provided by museums and libraries and expenditure on licence fees or subscriptions paid on behalf of maintained schools.
The majority of the £9.1 billion planned expenditure on high needs is for top-up funding:
- Maintained schools: high needs top-up funding is planned to be £2.6 billion
- Non-maintained and independent providers: high needs top up funding is planned to be £2.5 billion
- Academies, free schools and colleges: high needs top up funding is planned to be £2.6 billion.
High needs top up funding is funding over and above the core high needs place funding (in section (ii) above), which a school or college receives to enable a pupil or student with high needs to participate in education and learning. The number of children and young people who have education, health and care plans (EHC plans), increased by 11.4% in 2024 and is now 576,000. The number of pupils in schools in England who have SEN support increased by 4.7% to 1,239,000 in 2024. Currently 13.6% of pupils in schools in England have either an education, heath and care plan or SEN support. This, combined with changes in funding following the 2014 Children and Families Act, has resulted in the planned expenditure related to SEN increasing. The High needs funding: 2024 to 2025 operational guide (opens in new tab) gives further information on high needs funding.
For categories outside of SEN and disability, planned spend includes central and contingency expenditure on the early years entitlement. This has increased from £166.4 million to £249.1 million (49.7%).
This large rise is due to changes in the early years entitlement which includes
- the introduction of a new national funding formula (NFF) covering both the existing 2-year-old entitlement for disadvantaged children, new working parent entitlements for 2-year-olds and entitlements for children aged 9 months to 2 years
- a requirement for local authorities to have special educational needs inclusion funds (SENIFs) for all children with special educational needs (SEN) eligible for, or taking up, the new and existing entitlements, regardless of the number of hours taken
- extending the eligibility for early years pupil premium and disability access fund to eligible children aged 2 years old and under accessing the entitlements from 2024 to 2025
Information on planned expenditure for each category of early years expenditure can be found under “Planned expenditure on early years education” below.
A full breakdown of planned expenditure for each category of planned expenditure and school phase for the financial year 2024-25 can be found in Table 1: Planned expenditure on schools, by category of expenditure, and phase of school, England, financial year 2024-25.
A table showing planned gross and net expenditure, plus net expenditure per capita for for each LA for the years 2015-16 to 2024-25 can be found in Table 2: Total planned expenditure, income, and net expenditure per capita, England, financial year 2024-25.
A full description of all included planned expenditure including what is included within each category, can be found in the guidance for the Section 251 Budget collection. (opens in new tab)
Planned expenditure on the other education and community budget
The total planned net expenditure on the other education and community budget for 2024-25 is £3.6 billion, £0.6 billion (19.3%) higher than in 2023-24. Net expenditure per capita is £1,058, £219 higher than in 2023-24.
The other education and community budget includes adult and community learning, home to school transport, educational psychology services, special educational needs (SEN) administration including the cost of responding to SEN complaints (including appeals to tribunal), central support and pension costs.
Of this £3.6 billion planned expenditure on the other education and community budget, the majority (63.2%) is accounted for by home to school (and other provision) transport, this percentage has increased year on year from 2016/17 when it was 45.2%. For 2024-25 planned expenditure by age was:
- Pupils under 16 with SEN - £1.5 billion.
- Mainstream pupils under 16 (without SEN) - £514.3 million.
- Pupils aged 16 to 18 with SEN - £155.5 million.
- Students aged 19-25 SEN/LLDD (learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities) - £56.8 million.
- Mainstream pupils post 16 (without SEN) - £17.3 million.
A further 16.2% of planned expenditure within the other education and community budget relates to SEN and disability:
- Planned expenditure on SEN administration, including the cost of tribunals, was £333.2 million, 9.3% of all planned expenditure on the other education and community budget. This would be expected as His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service reported in the latest published data (opens in new tab) that SEND registered appeals and appealable decisions have significantly risen.
- Provision of educational psychology service was planned to be £172.1 million.
- The planned expenditure on independent advice and support services (parent partnership), guidance and information was £30.2 million. This relates to guidance and information to parents and carers of children, and to young people, who have SEN and disability.
All categories of planned expenditure in the other education and community budget, by school phase (where applicable), for the financial year 2024-25 can be found in Table 3: Planned expenditure on other education and community, by category of expenditure and phase of school, England, financial year 2024-25.
A time series for planned total gross expenditure, total net expenditure and total net expenditure per pupil, for each local authority, for the financial years 2015-16 to 2024-25 can be found in Table 4: Total planned expenditure, income, and net expenditure per capita, for other education and community, England, financial years 2015-16 to 2023-24.
Planned expenditure on children's and young people's services
The total net planned expenditure on children's and young people's services for 2024-25 is £12.6 billion. This is £1.2 billion (10.4%) higher than for 2023-24 and comprises:
- £7.0 billion (55.9%) for children looked after
- £3.2 billion (25.2%) for safeguarding children and young people's services
- £1.3 billion (10.3%) for family support services
- £445.0 million (3.5%) for Sure Start children's centres and other early years funding
- £352.2 million (2.8%) on services for young people, including substance misuse and teenage pregnancy services
- £187.4 million (1.5%) on youth justice
- £94.1 million (0.7%) for other children and families services
Children looked after (CLA)
The latest published information shows that the number of CLA in England increased by 2% between 2022 and 2023, continuing the trend seen in recent years.
In 2024-25 planned net expenditure on CLA is £7.0 billion, a 15.0% increase from 2023-24. Expenditure on CLA consistently forms the largest proportion of LA spending on children's and young people's services. It represents 55.9% of planned expenditure in 2024-25, slightly higher than in 2023-24 (53.7%).
Within CLA the main areas of planned expenditure are residential care and fostering services, with £2.8 billion (39.1%) and £2.1 billion (30.3%) being planned respectively.
A breakdown of all categories within children's and young people's services for the financial year 2024-25 can be found in Table 5: Planned expenditure, income and per capita expenditure, by category, on children's and young peoples services, England, 2024-25.
A summary showing gross planned expenditure, net planned expenditure, and expenditure per capita, for each LA and all financial years since 2015-16 is shown in Table 6: Total planned expenditure, income and net expenditure per capita, for children's and young peoples services, England, 2015-16 to 2024-25.
Planned expenditure on early years education
As part of the Section 251 Budget return for 2024-25, LAs returned details of their planned early years spending for children aged 9 months to 2 years, aged 2 years old and those aged 3 and 4 years-old. LAs also confirmed their planned budget for the special educational needs inclusion fund (SENIF), early years pupil premium (EYPP), and disability access fund (DAF).
For 2024-25 there have been changes in the funding of early years education. Information on children aged 9 months to 2 years is being collected for the first time following the introduction of new working parent entitlements for children in this age group.
There has also been the introduction of a new national funding formula (NFF) covering the existing 2-year-old entitlement for disadvantaged children, the new working parent entitlements for 2-year-olds and the new entitlements for children aged 9 months to 2 years. In addition there is a requirement for local authorities to have special educational needs inclusion funds (SENIFs) for all children with SEN eligible for, or taking up the new and existing entitlements, regardless of the number of hours taken. The eligibility for the early years pupil premium and disability access fund has also been extended to eligible children aged 2 years old and under.
Full information on the changes is available is available in Early years entitlements: local authority funding operational guide 2024 to 2025 (opens in new tab).
The total planned expenditure on early years education for:
- children aged 9 months to 2 years is £697.7 million
- children aged 2 year olds is £1.4 billion
- children aged 3 and 4 years is £3.6 billion
The number of funded hours planned is:
- for children aged 9 months to 2 years, 65.4 million hours
- for children aged 2 year olds, 182.6 million hours
- for children aged 3 and 4 years, 624.5 million hours
Planned expenditure for the most vulnerable groups of young children was:
- For the SEN inclusion fund, for children aged 9 months to 2 years planned expenditure was £10.5 million, for those aged 2 years it was £25.0 million and for those aged 3 and 4 years it was £86.8 million.
- For the disability access fund for children aged 9 months to 2 years planned expenditure was £2.5 million, for those aged 2 years it was £8.4 million and for those aged 3 and 4 years it was £28.2 million.
- For the early years pupil premium for children aged 9 months to 2 years planned expenditure was £1.5 million, for those aged 2 years it was £28.8 million and for those aged 3 and 4 years it was £44.2 million.
A file showing totals for all fields returned in the early years section of the S251 Budget return is available under supporting files,
Planned high needs places and funding in maintained schools
As part of the Section 251 Budget return, LAs submit details of high needs places, the planned spending of which is included within the reported £2.0 billion planned expenditure (section “Planned expenditure on schools”). More information on high needs funding can be found in the methodology document associated with this publication.
For the financial year 2024-25:
- SEN (special educational needs) - there were 102,351 planned places (September to March) with total funding for the financial year 2024-25 of £974.4 million.
- PRU (pupil referral unit) - there were 13,437 planned places, with total funding for the financial year 2024-25 of £135.3 million.
- Hospital education - there were 1,809 planned places, with total funding for the financial year 2024-25 of £27.0 million.
A table containing details of high needs places and funding for the financial year 2023-24, for each school returned by a local authority as having funded places, is available for download under ancillary files. A searchable file for individual schools is also available under “Explore data”.
Contact us
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