This is the main pot of money the government gives a council each year to fund its schools and support for children with special educational needs. It matters mostly as a yardstick: it tells you how big the council's schools operation is, so debts can be compared fairly between large and small councils. A high number simply means a bigger council with more pupils; a low number means a smaller one.
| name | dsg_grant_year |
|---|---|
| dataset | 05-dsg-send-deficits |
| kind | extracted |
| type | numeric |
| unit | GBP |
| grain | local authority x financial year |
| role | denominator |
| source | data/data/s251_alleducation_la_regional_national.csv (cp1252); geographic_level == 'Local authority'; category_of_expenditure == '1.9.1 Dedicated Schools Grant for year'; column gross_expenditure |
| period | 2015-16 to 2024-25 |
| missingness | 'x' = not applicable, 'z' = suppressed — never treat as zero |
| score_note | Raw grant line; pure context and denominator, says nothing about management quality. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
The Dedicated Schools Grant allocated to the LA for the year. Serves as the scale denominator for the cumulative deficit (dsg_deficit_share_of_grant), normalising deficits across councils of very different sizes.