Dedicated Schools Grant Consultation 2026-27

The annual Dedicated Schools Grant consultation will run between 3-24 October 2025, and as ever we welcome as many contributions to the consultation as possible, from a wide range of education stakeholders. The focus of the mainstream schools' consultation is centred upon technical funding allocations this year and understanding potential impact, whilst the early years consultation focuses on increasing 2-year-old take up, particularly for children from families receiving additional support (FRAS). We will be sending out a link via email to the consultation once it opens, alongside publication in the weekly Together bulletin.   

This year, in response to feedback, we have prepared a series of online resources to provide an overview and broader context of the Dedicated Schools Grant, the National Funding Formula and other aspects of schools funding. These will be released alongside the consultation.  

The annual consultation normally occurs following the Department for Education (DfE) providing the provisional DSG allocations, allowing technical papers to be prepared to illustrate the potential impact of proposals under consultation and providing schools and academies with an indication of their following year's funding to support future planning.  Unfortunately, the publication of this provisional information has been delayed by the DfE, as it was last year, and so this approach is not possible, however the consultation still needs to take place on the same timeline to allow the necessary decisions to be taken to confirm schools funding on the normal timescales.   

Where possible, technical papers to illustrate potential impact will be provided using current funding levels, and 'normal' technical papers will be distributed with provisional 2026-27 funding information as soon as possible following DfE publication. To ensure you have the opportunity to ask any questions relating to the technical aspects of funding allocation in the Dedicated Schools Grant proposals, a reminder that there are three sessions available this year: 

• 08 October 2025  -  2pm - 4pm in person at County Hall, Norwich (click to RSVP) 
• 09 October 2025  -  3:45pm - 5:45pm Online via Teams (click to join) - this meeting will be recorded and shared after the event 
• 22 October 2025   - 3:45pm - 5:45pm Online via Teams (click to join) 

These dates along with meeting links can also be found on the Key Events calendar here.