Dedicated schools grant (DSG) management plan
Template and guidance for local authorities for the Department of Education (DfE) DSG management plan.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.
The dedicated schools grant (DSG): conditions of grant 2025 to 2026 (paragraph 5.2), require that any local authority with an overall deficit on its DSG account at the end of the 2024 to 2025 financial year, or whose DSG surplus has substantially reduced during the year, must be able to present a plan to the Department for Education (DfE) for managing their future DSG spend.
DSG management plan template
You can now view and download the new version of the template directly from this GOV.UK page, without the need to access Document exchange.
We have worked with local authorities to develop a supportive standard DSG management plan template. Please read the accompanying guidance, when completing it.
We have designed the template to help local authorities manage their DSG and form evidence-based and strategic future plans for the provision of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities.
We encourage all local authorities to use the template as a planning tool. It will be useful when discussing proposals and sharing complex funding information in a simple way with internal and external bodies, parent and carer forums and elected members. We expect the plan to be updated and presented at schools forum meetings and any high needs sub-groups regularly, and at least on a termly basis.
Local authorities should aim to present an up to date version of the plan to the schools forum in time for budget planning discussions and before the deadline for block movement requests, if they are submitting one. The template should be updated regularly throughout the year to reflect the most recent forecast position and be viewed as an on-going live document.
DSG management plan: guidance for local authorities
This guidance document is a step-by-step guide to help local authorities complete the DSG management plan template.
Further information
Relevant departmental advice and statutory guidance
DSG: conditions of grant 2025 to 2026
High needs funding arrangements: 2025 to 2026
Pre-16 schools funding: local authority guidance for 2025 to 2026
section 251 budget and outturn returns for 2024 to 2025
section 251 budget and outturn returns for 2023 to 2024
section 251 budget and outturn returns for 2022 to 2023
Other departmental resources
The School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2025
Updates to this page
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We have published version 10 of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) management plan template and accompanying guidance for 2025 to 2026 financial year. Key changes are: - we have removed section 251 (s251) data for 2020 to 2021 financial year and pre-populated for 2023 to 2024 financial year. - we have removed SEN2 data for 2021 to align pupil number data with financial data. - we have uploaded the new template on to GOV.UK. Local authorities can now view and download the template directly from here without the need to access Document exchange.
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We have updated the 'Dedicated schools grants (DSG) management plan guidance for local authorities' for 2024 to 2025 to include key changes in version 8 of the template. This provides users with information about the amendments we have made to the DSG management plan template for 2024 to 2025.
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We have updated the 'Dedicated schools grants (DSG) management plan guidance for local authorities' for 2024 to 2025 to include the following additional section: - section 1.6: Key changes in version 7 of the template. This provides users with information about the amendments we have made to the DSG management plan template for 2024 to 2025.
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Dedicated schools grant (DSG) management plan template - we have updated the template, so it now allows local authorities to forecast up to 7 years financial data (it is not compulsory to forecast this far, but we would expect a minimum of 3 years). Dedicated schools grant (DSG) management plan template - we have removed the 2018 to 2019 financial data and the template is now pre-populated for 2021 to 2022 financial year. Dedicated schools grant (DSG) management plan guidance 2023 to 2024 - we have updated the narrative sections on both the 'local authority specific' and 'placements' tabs.
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We've added the guidance for 2022 to 2023 on DSG deficit management plans for local authorities.
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We have updated the DSG management plan template, which can be found on document exchange and accompanying guidance: Key changes include outturn and future forecasts are now expected to be input on pre-recoupment basis and benchmarking data had been updated. An additional tab called 'Executive Summary' has been added to provide a headline summary of end of year positions, headline savings and pressures. The Financial Summary tab has been updated to reflect the relevant year and 2017 to 2018 has now been removed. Cells have been aligned for consistency. The CYP tab and all placement tabs now show the year on year % increase in each category, separated out by age groups. An additional tab called 'HN Recoupment' has been added to address concerns around comparing pre and post recoupment figures. All placement tabs have been updated to reflect the relevant year, and 2017 to 2018 has now been removed.
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We have updated the DSG management plan spreadsheet and accompanying guidance: Correction of formula on the ‘Post 16 and FE’ tab. This specifically affects cells in row 12 and figures on the ‘Financial tab’ to reconcile. Formulas in Column L of the ‘Financial’ tab have been added (rows 94, 95, 99, 100, 104, 105, 109, 110, 114, 115, 119 and 120) In the “Other spend” section of the ‘Financial’ tab, formulas in Columns C and D have been updated to show net figures rather than gross figures, as a result of user feedback (rows 58, 63, 64, 65, 71, 72, 73 and 74) The summary box on the ‘Financial’ tab has been extended to include future financial years, and formulas replaced. Five rows have been added in the expenditure section of the ‘Other’ tab to enable local authorities to record other high needs expenditure contained elsewhere within their s251, and enable all high needs expenditure to be reconciled to funding.
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Correction of the auto populated data pulling through on the ‘Hospital schools or AP’ tab in the DSG Management Plan Template. This specifically affects cells C14, C15 and D14, D15 and figures on the ‘Financial tab’ to reconcile. Also, correction of formula on the ‘Post 16’ tab in the DSG Management Plan Template. This specifically affects cells C12 and D12 and figures on the ‘Financial tab’ to reconcile.
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First published.