Guidance

Estimated Pupil Numbers: guidance for completing the digital form

Published 13 October 2025

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The autumn census return forms the basis for calculating pupil-led funding for the following academic year for most academies. In some cases, we use estimated pupil numbers (EPN) if the academy’s funding agreement includes a clause to this effect.

Please refer to the academies revenue funding allocations for more information on how your allocation is calculated.

2. Eligibility

2.1 Conditions for accessing this form

The online form is now open for institutions to provide estimated pupil numbers for the 2026 to 2027 academic year, where their funding agreement allows for estimate funding.

Please submit your estimate on or before 5pm Friday 24 October 2025. Your final budgets may be delayed if we do not receive your pupil number estimates by the above deadline.

Where estimates of pupil numbers are not provided, we will use the most recent census data to calculate your funding. If you are a growing school that is still adding year groups, this can result in a funding shortfall.

3. When to submit your estimates

You can complete your online form for the academic year 2026 to 2027 now.

The deadline for submitting your estimates is on or before 5pm Friday 24 October 2025.

You can amend your submission up until the deadline It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

4. Accessing the estimated pupil numbers form

Click on the EPN link to access the form.

4.1 Before you start

Before you start the submission process, please ensure that you:

• have a Department for Education (DfE) Sign-in account
• are an eligible institution
• have consulted the guidance published by DfE on EPN
• have details of your estimated pupil numbers, and the guaranteed pupil number received from your local authority, if applicable
• have evidence to support an increase in your estimated pupil numbers

4.2 DfE Sign-in

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

Follow the steps below to access your DfE Sign-in account:

1. Access the online EPN digital form online. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your account email address and password) for authentication.

2. Choose the organisation for whom you are completing the form for – this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations.

3. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into the account.

4. If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page.

5. If you believe these details are incorrect, please contact us via the Customer Help Portal and we will investigate. However, you can still proceed with your submission.

To complete the form, your DfE Sign-in account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for.

You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in; it is used only for authentication.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, you will need to create one by completing steps 1 to 7 below:

1. Access DfE Sign-in page and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’. On the next page, select ‘No account? Create one’.

2. Enter your name and email address. You must use a valid business email address that contains your name – we are unable to accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’. You are also unable to use a personal email address.

3. We will send you an email to verify your email address; copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page. 

4. Create a memorable password that is a minimum of 8 characters and contains 3 out of: lowercase characters, uppercase characters, numbers, symbols. Enter your given name and surname.

5. Sign in using your new credentials. Request your multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification email by clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity’ page.

6. We will send you an MFA email to verify your identity. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.

7. Follow the next step instructions outlined in ‘Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account’ below.

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account

To add a new organisation to your DfE Sign-in account, follow steps 1 to 6 below:

1. Login to your DfE Sign-in account.

2. Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.

3. Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.

4. Enter the name of the organisation you wish to add.

5. Select the organisation.

6. Select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to the approver(s) of your organisation. If you do not already have an approver your request will be actioned by the DfE Sign-in support team. 

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under ‘Already have a DfE account’ section to complete the form.

You may have noticed the term ‘approver’ when setting up your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually a senior person, such as a manager.

For security reasons, you will need authorisation from one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

4.3  If you need further assistance

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, use our DfE Sign-in help service where you will be able to request further assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘Other.’

If you are having problems accessing the form(s), you can contact us via our Customer Help Portal.

5.  Completing the form 

Access the estimated pupil numbers digital form and select ‘Start now’. 

When authenticated through DfE sign-in, you will find a ‘Save and continue’ button on each page of the form. If you sign out of a form, or leave it opened for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in.

Once you have submitted your form, you will be advised of the next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission with a link to download a PDF copy of your submission. This link will expire after 6 months, so we recommend you download a copy as soon as possible.

You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline.

Selecting ‘Save and continue’ on each page will take you through the form.

You must click ‘Submit’ on the final form page to send your completed data return to us.

5.1  Your details

We will show details of the information we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into your DfE Sign-in account.

5.2 Your funded pupil numbers

This page shows your funded pupil numbers. For most schools, a reasonable starting point to determine your estimated pupil numbers for the 2026 to 2027 academic year is your current intake.

The table shows October census data for the 2024 to 2025 academic year and the 2025 to 2026 academic year funded numbers for your institution. Both should be used as a guide to estimate your pupil numbers for the 2026 to 2027 academic year.

5.3 Pupil’s age range

You must select the age ranges for your institution. You can select one or all of the related options on this page.

5.4 Primary, Secondary and 16 to 19 pupil numbers

Depending on the option(s) you chose on the previous page, you will be presented with 1, 2 or all 3 pages. Use these to give us a detailed breakdown of estimated pupil numbers for each year.

If there are no pupils in a particular year group, you can enter zero (0) to continue with your form.

5.5 If your estimates for 2026 to 2027 are higher than your current intake

We have included your 2025 to 2026 academic year actual pupil numbers and your funded pupil numbers in this form. The form allows you to provide further information if you are adding a year group and the number of pupils in that year group differ from the number recorded on your previous census return. Please select all options that apply to you to tell us why your estimates for 2026 to 2027 are higher than your current intake.

5.6 Upload evidence if your estimates are higher than the current intake

If your current intake is not higher than previous academic year, enter zero (0). You can upload up to a maximum of 10 documents as evidence. Evidence could be a revised deed of variation, a letter agreeing a change by deed of variation, a local authority email, or a revised funding agreement.

Do not include any information containing personal data.

5.7 Guaranteed pupil number

Select the correct option for your institution and continue to the next page. Depending on which option you have selected, you will be able to enter the guaranteed pupil number for your institution.

5.8 Thank you page

Upon completion of your estimates, the form will prompt you that it is complete. However, your submission will only be considered complete when you submit your form at the summary page.

We will ask you to enter contact details of additional personnel at your setting. We only use this information if we need to validate something in your estimated pupil numbers return.

5.9 Declarations page

Once you have completed all relevant data entries you must complete all mandatory declarations. You will not be able to submit your form without fully completing this section. You will need to tick each statement box to confirm your agreement.

5.10 Submission summary

The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting your form.   

You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You  can also save this summery, by selecting ‘Save summary as PDF’ before you submit.

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page and receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed. 

5.11  Confirmation 

The final page confirms your form has been successfully submitted. You will receive a unique reference number against your submission, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

You will also receive an email confirming successful submission of your claim. This email will contain a link to download a PDF copy of your submission.

5.12  Amending your submission

You can make changes to the form and resubmit until 5pm on 24 October 2025. To do this, you will need to sign back in to access your form, make your amendments and resubmit it.

You will be unable to amend your data after the submission deadline. All previous versions will be disregarded.

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.

6. Enquiries 

If you have read this guidance and have any questions, contact us via the Customer Help Portal.