This is money a council chose to move from its general funds — the budget for everything else it does — into its schools budget, on top of the government grant for schools. It matters because councils only do this when the schools budget cannot cope on its own, so it is a sign the problem is spilling over into the rest of the council's finances. A high number means the council is propping up its schools budget from its own pocket; zero means it is not.
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devon | county | 30,476,000 | 1st worst of 23 |
| Kent | county | 15,100,000 | 2nd worst of 23 |
| Bristol, City of | unitary | 10,862,300 | 1st worst of 61 |
| Norfolk | county | 5,500,000 | 3rd worst of 23 |
| Kingston upon Thames | london | 2,400,000 | 1st worst of 33 |
| Hounslow | london | 2,000,000 | 2nd worst of 33 |
| Leeds | metropolitan | 1,782,000 | 1st worst of 36 |
| West Berkshire | unitary | 1,518,292 | 2nd worst of 61 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | london | 1,409,502 | 3rd worst of 33 |
| Oxfordshire | county | 1,200,000 | 4th worst of 23 |
| Council | Class | Value | In its class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumberland | unitary | 0 | 56th best of 61 |
| Birmingham | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Coventry | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Dudley | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Sandwell | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Solihull | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Walsall | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Wolverhampton | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Bradford | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| Calderdale | metropolitan | 0 | 31st best of 36 |
| name | dsg_la_contribution |
|---|---|
| dataset | 05-dsg-send-deficits |
| kind | extracted |
| type | numeric |
| unit | GBP |
| grain | local authority x financial year |
| role | feature |
| source | data/data/s251_alleducation_la_regional_national.csv (cp1252); geographic_level == 'Local authority'; category_of_expenditure == '1.9.5 Local Authority additional contribution'; column gross_expenditure |
| period | 2015-16 to 2024-25 |
| missingness | 'x' = not applicable, 'z' = suppressed — never treat as zero |
| score_note | Direct evidence the deficit has spilled into the council's own funds. |
| calculated | ../calculated/dsg-la-contribution.csv |
| calculated_rows | 1518 |
| calculated_periods | 2015-16 to 2024-25 |
| 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 |
Money the council put into the Schools Budget from its own general funds on top of the DSG (e.g. Kent £15.1m in 2024-25). A non-zero value signals the council is directly bailing out its schools/SEND budget, which underpins the la_bailout_flag.