DSG / SEND deficits (DfE, section 251 outturn)

Publisher and landing page

• Publisher: Department for Education (DfE), via the Explore Education Statistics (EES) service.
• Official release: LA and school expenditure, financial year 2024-25 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure/2024-25
• Also listed on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/la-and-school-expenditure-2024-to-2025-financial-year

Files downloaded

Single "all data" ZIP for the release (downloaded 2026-08-13):

• URL: https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/d826124d-95f3-4b2f-a8ab-3425f84145fe/files?fromPage=ReleaseDownloads
• Saved as: data/la-and-school-expenditure_2024-25.zip (~11 MB), extracted into data/data/:
  • s251_alleducation_la_regional_national.csv (27 MB) — the key file. Contains, per local authority, the Dedicated Schools Grant funding block, including line 1.9.3 Dedicated Schools Grant carried forward to next year = the cumulative DSG surplus/deficit (negative = deficit), plus 1.9.1 DSG for year, 1.9.2 brought forward, 1.9.5 LA additional contribution. Also contains the full s251 High Needs (SEND) expenditure lines per LA.
  • s251_childrens_young_peoples_services_la_regional_national.csv (14 MB)
  • cfr_expenditure_la_regional_national.csv, cfr_income_la_regional_national.csv, cfr_revenue_reserve_la_regional_national_data.csv — school-level consistent financial reporting aggregates (context only)
  • data-guidance/data-guidance.txt — DfE's own field descriptions

Release publication date: 11 December 2025 (page last updated 30 June 2026).

Granularity, coverage, period

• Granularity: per English local authority (with regional and national rows; filter geographic_level == "Local authority"). 149 LAs report the DSG carry-forward line for 2024-25 (a handful of the 153 education authorities are missing/suppressed — see caveats).
• Geographic coverage: England only (s251 is an England-only statutory return).
• Time period: financial years 2015-16 to 2024-25 inclusive, in one long-format CSV (time_period e.g. 202425).
• Values in £; x = not applicable, z = not available/suppressed.

Refresh cadence

Annual. The s251 outturn release usually lands each December covering the financial year ended the previous March; next edition (2025-26 outturn) expected around December 2026.

Re-download

curl -L -o la-and-school-expenditure_2024-25.zip \
  "https://content.explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/api/releases/d826124d-95f3-4b2f-a8ab-3425f84145fe/files?fromPage=ReleaseDownloads"

(The release-GUID URL is edition-specific; for future editions get the "Download all data (ZIP)" link from the EES landing page above.)

Licence

Open Government Licence v3.0 (stated on the EES release page).

Caveats

• The DSG "deficit" figure is line 1.9.3 DSG carried forward to next year (negative = cumulative deficit). It is a reported outturn balance, not the MHCLG "DSG adjustment account" figure; the statutory override treatment (deficits held off general balances since 2020) means council general-fund reserves elsewhere will not reflect these deficits.
• 149 of the 153 English education authorities have a 2024-25 value on line 1.9.3; a few are suppressed (z) or absent — do not treat missing as zero.
• Safety Valve / Delivering Better Value agreements inject DfE money into some LAs' DSG accounts, distorting year-on-year deficit comparisons for those councils.
• Local government reorganisation (e.g. Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Somerset splits/mergers) breaks LA time series across ~2023.
• Figures are LA self-returned s251 data and are occasionally revised; the release page was last updated 30 June 2026 after original December 2025 publication.
• SEND cost pressure itself is best measured from the High Needs expenditure lines in the same s251 CSV, alongside the DSG balance lines.