{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/school-and-early-years-finance-england-regulations-2026/note/enacted",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/school-and-early-years-finance-england-regulations-2026/note/enacted.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2026/37",
  "legislation_title": "The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2026",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/school-and-early-years-finance-england-regulations-2026/enacted",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations make provision for local authorities’ financial arrangements in relation to the funding of maintained schools and providers of funded early years provision in England, for the financial year 2026-2027.\nPart 1 revokes, with the exception of regulation 45, the School and Early Years Finance and Childcare (Provision of Information About Young Children) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024 (S.I. 2024/66) (“the 2024 Regulations”) with effect from 1st April 2026 (regulation 2). The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/42) (“the 2025 Regulations”) remain in force. Regulation 3 amends references to the 2024 Regulations in the Childcare (Provision of Information About Young Children) (England) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/1554). Regulation 4 amends references to the 2025 Regulations in the Schools Forums (England) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2261).\nPart 2 defines the non-schools education budget (regulation 5 and Schedule 1) and sets requirements for the initial determination of the schools budget (regulation 6), which is defined in regulation 7 and Schedule 2. It lists expenditure that is excluded from the non-schools education budget and the schools budget (regulation 8) and makes provision for central expenditure and the individual schools budget (regulation 9 and Schedule 2). It further requires local authorities to determine budget shares for schools maintained by them and amounts to be allocated in respect of early years provision in their areas, in accordance with the appropriate formulae (regulations 11 and 12).\nChapter 1 of Part 3 deals with the determination of budget shares for schools. Regulations 14 and 16 to 25 make provision for specific factors that the local authority must include in their local funding formulae for certain schools. The allowable ranges for these amounts or sums are set in relation to the distance between their respective value in the national funding formula and, for all mandatory factors other than the split site factor, the value in the local authority’s funding formula in the previous funding period (financial year 2025 – 2026). Regulation 26 specifies additional criteria which may, or must, be taken into account in setting budgets for certain schools. The Regulations also impose a minimum per pupil amount (regulation 28) and a minimum funding guarantee for schools (regulation 29 and Schedule 3). Regulations 30 to 32 make provision for calculation of budgets in relation to specific types of school or specific circumstances.\nChapter 2 of Part 3 deals with early years provision and requires local authorities’ formulae to take into account the predicted hours of attendance (with provision for review and redetermination on the basis of information about actual hours of attendance) (regulation 33) and to include one or more social deprivation factors (regulation 34). Regulations 35 and 36 provide for additional amounts to be included in respect of children in specified circumstances (regulation 35) and disabled children (regulation 36). There is a requirement to pass 97% of funding to early years providers (regulation 38) and a 12% limit on the amount of funding that may be attributable to the discretionary (supplementary) part of the early years formulae (regulation 39).\nChapter 3 of Part 3 deals with the redetermination of a school’s budget share where a pupil is permanently excluded or leaves (regulation 41) and where a school’s non-domestic rate liability changes (regulation 42). Regulation 42 also provides for the redetermination of a school’s budget share, or the amount allocated to an early years provider, in order to correct errors in previous determinations. Regulation 43 makes provision for the Secretary of State to authorise a local authority to vary its application of certain provisions in these Regulations.\nThere are also requirements in relation to local authorities’ schemes (regulation 44 and Schedule 4).\nA full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "enacted",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/37/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T21:07:21.501156+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}