Management Information Sheet
Norfolk's schools funding formula agreed by County Council's Cabinet
On 29 January, Norfolk's County Council's Cabinet agreed the recommended schools funding formula for Norfolk schools, both maintained and academies.
This includes the 0.5% Schools Block to High Needs Block transferred agreed in November 2023 by Schools Forum, and an additional 1% block transfer from Schools Block to High Needs Block approved by the Secretary of State in line with Norfolk's Local First Inclusion plan.
The mainstream schools' formula for 2024-25 will include a Minimum Funding Guarantee of +0.5% (the maximum allowed by the regulations). There will no longer be a cap on gains. The mainstream schools' funding formula will mirror the National Funding Formula methodologies but factor values will be set 1.64% lower than the National Funding Formula (NFF) in order to ensure affordability of the formula based on the final October 2023 Census pupil data. This change away from a hard cap utilised for affordability in previous years will ensure that the impact of the Schools Block to High Needs Block transfer is spread equally across all mainstream schools, removing a previous issue whereby many, small rural schools were suffering a disproportionate capping of their gains.
For special schools, the underlying top-up band values have been uplifted by 3.4%, with a Minimum Funding Guarantee of +0.5% applied (the maximum allowed by the regulations).
Budget shares for 2024-25 will be published on 28 February.