Consultation on the National Funding Formula

A consultation has been announced today (8th July 2021) into the government approach on reforms to the National Funding Formula (NFF) and the plans to transition away from local formulae to all schools’ funding allocations being determined directly by the NFF in the years ahead. The National Funding Formula is the method that the Government is proposing to use to decide how much money should be given to English state schools each year. It works separately to the High Needs Funding however it may have implications for the funding of interventions at school level.

For some background, in 2018-19, the Government introduced a “soft” NFF. This meant the overall funding for schools in individual local authority areas was determined by a new national formula but distributed to schools according to the existing local formula. The Government is now consulting on a ‘hard’ NFF with a new national formula used to determine the entirety of individual schools’ funding.  It has been suggested that this may lead to decreased local flexibility, potentially lessening the ability to respond to local circumstances and needs. The consultation closes on 30th September 2021.