Dedicated schools grant assurance (DSG): guidance for local authorities for 2024 to 2025
Guidance for chief finance officers (CFOs) on how to submit the dedicated schools grant (DSG) assurance statement and note to the accounts for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Local authorities are responsible for financial regularity in schools. A local authority’s chief finance officer (CFO) is responsible for making the necessary arrangements for local financial and management controls, under section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972.
Under these arrangements, the CFO must ensure that the grant monies for the dedicated schools grant (DSG) are used for the purpose for which they are intended. They must confirm this by submitting an assurance statement to the Department for Education (DfE) that confirms the deployment of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) for autumn 2024 to 2025, alongside a note to the accounts.
The deadline for submitting the 2024 to 2025 autumn term DSG assurance statement and note to the accounts is on or before 5pm on Tuesday, 16 December 2025. You can change and resubmit your return up until this time.
The assurance statement and note to the accounts should still be submitted even if the audit of the local authority’s accounts has not been completed by this date.
Local authorities must submit their return using an online digital form via their DfE Sign-in account.
You can find the link to the forms in our attached guidance ‘Dedicated schools grant (DSG) assurance statement and note to the accounts: guidance for completing the digital forms’.
Local authorities should review this guidance before submitting the online forms. This will cover the technical aspects of each online form including how to set up a DfE Sign-in account.