Guidance

16 to 19 non-maintained special school (NMSS) revenue funding allocation guide: 2024 to 2025

Updated 13 March 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This guide explains how we have calculated funding allocations for non-maintained special schools (NMSS) for the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

2. Allocation changes

The allocation statement shows your current allocation based on the data available to us at this point.

We reserve the right to reduce or withdraw your allocation at any stage should issues arise through audit or other processes which:

• significantly affect the data underlying your allocation calculation (such as errors in your individualised learner record (ILR) or school census returns)
• significantly affect contract compliance, or
• if we believe that by making an allocation we will be putting public funds at risk

We also reserve the right to change your allocation if there are significant policy or data changes that impact on the calculated figures.

By exception, we will consider evidenced and credible business cases from institutions where there has been a significant error in the data returned by the institution. If you wish to submit a case, please refer to our guidance for submitting a business case.

3. Contact us

If you have questions after reading our guidance, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support in our customer help centre.

4. NMSS funding allocations

We will base NMSS funding allocations on the pupil numbers recorded in the October 2023 school census, uplifted by the difference between the pupil numbers recorded in the October 2022 and January 2023 school censuses. We treat any reduction in pupil numbers between the October 2022 and January 2023 school census as zero. This ensures that no school is funded below its October 2023 census pupil numbers.

We round the values in your statement to various numbers of decimal places. However, we calculate your funding using un-rounded values. This may result in some slight differences when you work through the calculation yourselves.

5. Funded places

This section explains how we calculate funded places in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

5.1 Total pupil numbers recorded in October 2022 census          

This is the total pupil headcount recorded in the October 2022 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for.

5.2 Total pupil numbers recorded in January 2023 census    

This is the total pupil headcount recorded in the January 2023 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for.

5.3 Difference between October 2022 and January 2023

We calculate the difference between census data by:

• ‘total pupil numbers recorded in January 2023 census’ - ‘total pupil numbers recorded in October 2022 census’

5.4 Total pupil numbers recorded in October 2023 census    

This is the total pupil headcount recorded in the October 2023 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for.

5.5 Total places funded for 2024 to 2025

If the ‘difference between October 2022 and January 2023’ is greater than zero, then we calculate the total places funded by:

• ‘difference between October 2022 and January 2023’ + ‘total pupil numbers recorded in October 2023 census’

If the ‘difference between October 2022 and January 2023’ is a negative value, we treat this as zero and do not apply a reduction.

6. High needs place funding

This section explains how we calculate high needs place funding in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

6.1 Pupil numbers (October 2023 census)

These are the pupil numbers recorded in the October 2023 census split by pre-16 pupil numbers and post-16 pupil numbers.

6.2 Proportions used in 2024 to 2025 allocation

These are the proportions of pre-16 and post-16 students to be funded based on the ‘total pupil numbers recorded in the October 2023 census’.

6.3 Funded places

These are the percentage proportions applied to the ‘total places funded for 2024 to 2025’ shown in the ‘funded places’ table.

6.4 Rate  

The rate of funding per place is £10,000.

6.5 Place funding         

We calculate place funding by:

• ‘funded places’ (pre-16 and post-16) × ‘rate’

7. Student financial support funding

This section explains how we have calculated student financial support funding in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

We have published financial support advice for institutions on the support young people may be able to access to help them participate in education and training.

7.1 Post-16 funded places number

This is the ‘funded places’ (post-16 only) shown in the ‘high needs place funding’ table.

7.2 Instances per student

For ‘element 1: financial disadvantage’, we use student postcodes from your May census 2023 data return and the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) 2019 to determine the number of instances per student.

For ‘element 2a: student costs – travel’, we use student postcodes and delivery location postcodes from your May census 2023 return and the IMD 2019 to determine the number of instances per student.

The maximum ‘instances per student’ value is 1.000.

If historic institution-level data is not available to complete the ‘instances per student’ calculation, we use local authority average values.

7.3 Number of instances

To calculate the number of instances, we multiply instances per student for ‘element 1: financial disadvantage’ and ‘element 2a: student costs – travel’ by the post-16 funded place number:

• ‘instances per student’ x ‘post-16 funded place number’

7.4 Instance funding rate

This is the funding rate for each element of the discretionary bursary for 2024 to 2025. Bursary funding rates are subject to change year on year.

7.5 Funding

We calculate funding by:

• ‘number of instances’ x ‘instance funding rate’

7.6 Discretionary bursary fund

We calculate the sum of each bursary element by:

• ‘element 1: financial disadvantage total’ + ‘element 2a: student costs travel total’

7.7 Bursary adjustment by exception

This is an exceptional increase or decrease applied to your discretionary bursary funding.

7.8 Student financial support funding total

We calculate the student financial support funding total by:

• ‘discretionary bursary fund sub-total’ + ‘bursary adjustment by exception’

If ‘discretionary bursary fund sub-total’ is greater than £0 but less than £500, then we will uplift the allocation to £500.