This shows how big a council's built-up schools-budget debt is compared with the size of its yearly government grant for schools — like comparing what you owe with what you earn in a year. It matters because a raw debt figure means little without knowing the council's size; this puts big and small councils on the same footing. A high number means the debt is large relative to the money coming in and hard to pay off; a low number means it is manageable.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole | unitary | 0.95 | 1st worst of 61 |
| Cheshire East | unitary | 0.62 | 2nd worst of 61 |
| Rutland | unitary | 0.62 | 3rd worst of 61 |
| Dorset | unitary | 0.6 | 4th worst of 61 |
| Bath and North East Somerset | unitary | 0.51 | 5th worst of 61 |
| Wokingham | unitary | 0.43 | 6th worst of 61 |
| North Somerset | unitary | 0.42 | 7th worst of 61 |
| Devon | county | 0.38 | 1st worst of 23 |
| Worcestershire | county | 0.37 | 2nd worst of 23 |
| Sefton | metropolitan | 0.37 | 1st worst of 36 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portsmouth | unitary | -0.12 | 1st best of 61 |
| Nottingham | unitary | -0.11 | 2nd best of 61 |
| Southend-on-Sea | unitary | -0.11 | 3rd best of 61 |
| Camden | london | -0.1 | 1st best of 33 |
| Bradford | metropolitan | -0.09 | 1st best of 36 |
| Coventry | metropolitan | -0.08 | 2nd best of 36 |
| City of London | london | -0.08 | 2nd best of 33 |
| Birmingham | metropolitan | -0.07 | 3rd best of 36 |
| Lambeth | london | -0.04 | 3rd best of 33 |
| North Lincolnshire | unitary | -0.04 | 4th best of 61 |
| name | dsg_deficit_share_of_grant |
|---|---|
| dataset | 05-dsg-send-deficits |
| kind | constructed |
| type | numeric |
| unit | ratio |
| grain | local authority x financial year |
| role | outcome |
| source | dsg_deficit_cum / dsg_grant_year |
| period | 2015-16 to 2024-25 (2016-17 missing) |
| missingness | Missing where dsg_deficit_cum is missing (all of 2016-17) |
| score_note | Size-normalised deficit — the cleanest cross-council performance comparator. |
| calculated | calculated/dsg-deficit-share-of-grant.csv |
| calculated_rows | 1366 |
| calculated_periods | 2015-16 to 2024-25 (2016-17 missing) |
| calculated_date | 2026-08-13 |
| peer_group | unitaries (n=63), metropolitan boroughs (n=36), London boroughs (n=33), counties (n=26) — scored within each class against its median/IQR |
The cumulative DSG deficit expressed as a share of one year's grant, normalising deficits across LA size. Inherits the corrected sign convention: positive = deficit (contrary to a line in SOURCE.md). Safety Valve injections through 1.9.1a can make year-on-year changes misleading for participating LAs.