This is extra money a council pays to academies, free schools and colleges for individual children whose special educational needs cost more to support than the standard funding covers. It matters because it shows how much of the council's special-needs spending flows to this type of school. A high number means many high-cost pupils are supported in academies and colleges; comparing it with the equivalent figure for council-run schools shows how the spending is split.
| name | hn_topup_academies |
|---|---|
| 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 == '1.2.2 Top-up funding – academies, free schools and colleges'; column net_expenditure |
| period | 2015-16 to 2024-25 |
| missingness | 'x' = not applicable, 'z' = suppressed — never treat as zero |
| score_note | Mirror twin of hn_topup_maintained; split by school type reflects structure, not performance. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
SEND top-up funding paid to academies, free schools and colleges. Together with the maintained-schools line it shows how the council's high-needs top-up spend is split across school types.