Barker works in partnership with School and Academy Trust sector bodies The Confederation of School Trusts (CST), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) and The Trust Network. They continue to advocate hard on behalf of schools and trusts and are offering guidance and advice on operational issues. Some key items are highlighted here.
The DfE has published guidance in the form of an National Funding Formula (NFF) Policy Note to support the sector with its planning ahead of the final NFF allocations for 2025-26. This document includes indicative schools NFF factor values, alongside information on the mainstream schools, high needs, and central school services funding for 2025 to 2026. It also includes details on the grants being rolled into the schools NFF from 2025 to 2026, and an annex which includes information to support disapplication requests.
The DfE aims to publish NFF allocations for schools and all supporting documents on the schools and high needs NFF (including the schools operational guide and NFF technical note), for 2025 to 2026 by the end of November.
Dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations will then be published in December 2024.
Last month the DfE launched the first phase of School-based nurseries funding to create 3,000 new school-based nurseries by upgrading unused primary school spaces. Through this scheme, schools can bid for a share of £15 million, supporting up to 300 new or expanded nurseries in this initial round.
Schools will need to demonstrate how their proposals will respond to need in their local area, supporting the 2025 expansion of government-funded hours of childcare and early education for working parents to 30 hours a week.
Deadline for applications has passed. Funding will be allocated to successful schools in Spring 2025 to support delivery for the first cohort of places. Subsequent rounds are expected to be announced.
Key findings in this new data set include:
To meet the additional demand placed on the childcare sector by expanding government funded entitlements to childcare, DfE estimates that, for the number of places needed:
DfE estimates that, for the levels of workforce recruitment needed: