The Gloucestershire Schools Forum met to discuss school funding for 2026/27, high needs funding, and the work of the f40 Group¹. The forum was also scheduled to review the minutes from their previous meeting.

School Funding 2026/27

Philip Haslett, Head of Education Strategy and Development, and Neil Egles, Finance Manager – Schools Strategy and Capital, were scheduled to present a report to the forum regarding school funding for 2026/27.

The report pack included updates on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), and the schools National Funding Formula (NFF).

The Secretary of State for Education confirmed the publication of provisional funding allocations for mainstream schools and local authorities in 2026/27 through the schools and central school services NFFs on 19 November 2025.

High Needs and Early Years allocations were not yet published, but the DfE stated that the publication of 2026/27 High Needs allocations would follow by the end of the year. It was anticipated that the Early Years 2026/27 allocations would be issued as usual in December 2025.

The indicative 2026/27 DSG block allocations that had been announced were:

• £546.891 million for the schools block
• £3.851 million for the central school services block

These figures were before any changes for the updated census data, which was due to be announced in December 2025.

The forum was asked to agree to a top-slice of the schools block for growth of £0.429 million. This growth fund is top sliced from the schools block of the DSG to provide funding for new classes required as a result of a shortage of basic need places, and for start-up costs for any new schools opening in the year.

The key statements regarding the Schools NFF in the Secretary of State for Education's announcement and the other issued DfE guidance were:

• Provisional funding for mainstream schools through the schools NFF would total £50.9 billion in 2026/27.
• The 2026/27 schools NFF included rolled in funding for pay and national insurance contributions costs that were previously allocated as separate grants outside the NFF.
• The rolled in funding for teachers' pay had been converted to a full-year equivalent, so that it would support the costs of the 2025 teachers' pay award across the whole 2026/27 funding year.
• On top of grant funding that had been rolled in, the core factor values in the schools NFF were rising by 2.1%, to increase the funding available to schools.
• The 2026/27 funding included a larger increase in the NFF additional needs factors compared to 2025/26.
• The funding floor would be set at 0%, continuing to ensure that the NFF protects schools against cash-terms reductions in their pupil-led per pupil funding.
• NFF would continue to apply minimum per pupil funding levels. These had increased for the rolled in grants and every primary school would attract at least £5,115 per pupil (£4,955 in 2025/26), and every secondary school at least £6,640 (£6,465 in 2025/26) per pupil.
• Local authorities continue to be able to transfer up to 0.5% of their total schools block allocations to other blocks of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), with schools forum approval.

The forum was asked to support Gloucestershire Council's disapplication request to the DfE for the continued application of the exceptional circumstances factor in the 2026/27 financial year. There were nine schools that met the conditions for exceptional circumstances, and the total amount to be funded in 2026/27 through the application of the 'exceptional circumstances' disapplication request was £0.154 million.

The forum was asked to agree to utilise any surplus remaining in the schools block to support the Targeted SEN support model. If there was any shortfall in the funding needed, it would be covered by reducing all NFF factor rates (except the Minimum Per Pupil Level) by the same percentage.

The forum was asked to consider and approve de-delegation at the per pupil rates shown for:

• in-year increases in pupil numbers (primary)
• union facilities (primary)
• targeted intervention (primary)
• targeted intervention (secondary)

The forum was asked to agree that the Notional SEN formula remains unchanged for 2026/27. The formula would be:

• 2.5% of the basic entitlement
• the full low prior attainment allocation.

High Needs

Philip Haslett, Head of Education Strategy and Development, was scheduled to present a report to the forum to provide an update on the forecast for the 2025/26 High Needs Block, and on the development of national reforms to the SEND system².

The High Needs Block forecast for November 2025 was in line with the anticipated expenditure set out in the original budget forecast at the June 2025 meeting of the School's Forum. The forecast overspend had increased by £87,000 to £44.673 million.

The movements in forecasts compared to budget, were in line with the previous reporting period, with an underspend across the alternative provision spend, due to a reduction in the forecast for Hospital Education, and increased expenditure in special school provision costs for bespoke packages and top-up funding.

The number of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and requests for assessment continued to rise. The county now supports 7,229 EHCPs at a rate of 40.29 per 1,000 children and young people. In the academic year 2024/25, needs assessment requests rose to 1,729, which is an increase of 12.86% compared to the prior year (1,532).

The forum was asked to note the government's decision to fund the full cost of SEND provision from with central government spending from 2028-29 .

The forum was asked to review initial responses to the schools financial survey and bring any questions or feedback to the meeting.

F40 Group

Philip Haslett, Head of Education Strategy and Development, was scheduled to provide an update on the work of the f40 Group, the focus of which continued to be on influencing the direction of the funding policy. The Group had been involved in:

• Giving evidence to the Education Select Committee.
• An MPs briefing in Westminster.
• A meeting with the now former School Standards Minister.
• Written to the new School Standards Minister with a view to setting up a meeting.
• A survey of f40 member authorities to ascertain their current and forecast financial position.