How maintained schools are funded

Get to grips with how maintained mainstream schools are funded. Find out about the national funding formula (NFF), as well as the other streams of funding that feed into your school's budget.

Last reviewed on 20 August 2023See updates
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Contents
  1. How the national funding formula (NFF) works
  2. Mainstream schools additional grant for 2023-24
  3. Teachers' pay additional grant for 2023-24
  4. Other streams of funding

This article focuses on funding for maintained mainstream schools. If this isn’t for you, find out how funding works in: 

How the national funding formula (NFF) works

Local authorities (LAs) allocate your school's core budget using a local funding formula

The DfE uses the national funding formula (NFF) to work out your school’s 'notional' core funding allocation, which it distributes to your LA. 

Your LA then applies its own local funding formula, through which it allocates your school's budget. The government is in the process of moving to a different system, called the 'hard' or 'direct' NFF – read more about this below.

Formulas vary between LAs. To see your LA's local funding formula, download the spreadsheet called 'Schools block funding formulae 2022