This is extra money a council pays to its own council-run schools for individual children whose special educational needs cost more to support than the standard funding covers. It matters because it shows how much high-cost special-needs support happens within the council's own schools. A high number means many such pupils are supported in council-run schools; comparing it with the academies figure shows where the burden falls.
| name | hn_topup_maintained |
|---|---|
| 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 == '1.2.1 Top-up funding – maintained schools' (en dash); 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_academies; raw spend line with little efficiency content. |
| peer_group | council class (district / county / unitary / metropolitan / London) — not yet scored on the leaderboard |
SEND top-up funding paid to maintained schools for pupils whose needs exceed place funding. Note the category string uses an en dash — an ASCII hyphen will not match.