DfE Update local authorities: 24 September 2025
Published 24 September 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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1. Information: New local authority maintained school data now live in the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool
We are pleased to announce that the latest financial data for local authority maintained schools for 2024 to 2025, is now available in the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool (FBIT).
This year, due to improvements in our processes, we will be releasing the data several weeks earlier than usual.
You will notice a change in the way IT spend has been broken down, and your comparator groups have also been updated.
FBIT enables schools and trusts to explore their financial data, benchmark spending, and identify opportunities for improvement.
Since its launch, we are very pleased to report that within the past 12 months 87% of schools and academies have engaged in using the tool.
Whether you are a school business professional, headteacher, governor, or part of a trust or local authority team, FBIT can help you:
- benchmark your school’s spending against similar institutions
- identify areas for improvement and share best practice
- build a workforce deployment plan using the integrated curriculum and financial planning tool
- access commercial resources, frameworks, and guidance from the Department for Education
- generate reports to support conversations with leadership and governance teams
If you are new to this service or would like a refresher, we encourage you to join one of our free webinars.
You can contact Benchmarking.SUPPORT@education.gov.uk to express your interest in joining a user research session and provide feedback on how we can improve the service further.