Guidance

Authority proforma tool (APT): purpose and process - instructions for local authorities

Published 16 December 2021

This guidance was withdrawn on 20 December 2022

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date. Please see our latest guidance on the authority proforma tool (APT).

Applies to England

1. Introduction

Each year, local authorities are required to detail their schools block funding (SBF) formulae in accordance with the arrangements set out by the Secretary of State (SoS) for Education.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has developed the authority proforma tool (APT) to assist local authorities to model, and then confirm how they plan to do this for the funding year.

This guidance is designed to be used in tandem with ‘How to complete the authority proforma tool’; however, it is recommended that this publication is reviewed first. ‘How to complete the authority proforma tool’ guides the user on how to complete the APT, whereas this publication contains the theory behind the APT and will therefore aid understanding.

This guidance document covers the APT background and purpose and the APT structure and key components. The current APT is an updated version of last year’s APT for communicating formulae and SBF allocations with ESFA. This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE).

2. Background and purpose

The main purpose of the APT is to:

• allow local authorities to model different options for their SBF formulae and to act as the proforma, which is submitted to ESFA in January of each year - it is also the mechanism by which ESFA provides the schools block dataset to local authorities
• capture all the data required by ESFA to calculate academy budgets, including information on the number of occupied high needs places at special units and resourced provision in mainstream academies, to determine the place-funding rate
• enable ESFA to check that the formula has been applied reasonably and in compliance with regulations and conditions of grant, and that central budgets are being allocated in line with regulations
• enable ESFA to check that all funding allocated through the schools block element of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) is passed through the funding formula set by the local authority, or allocated to the growth fund or falling rolls fund
• collect data on maintained schools’ schools block budgets for publication
• use the notional allocations for academies for recoupment purposes - recoupment will continue to take place based on the budget, including the minimum funding guarantee (MFG) that the academy would have received as a maintained school
• give ESFA information about which academies and future converters are judged by the LA, as meeting the criteria to qualify for exceptional factors or MFG exclusions, so that these can be considered in their funding allocations

The APT is made available to local authorities via the data collection portal, however, it is not held there indefinitely. Further information on this access will be emailed directly to local authorities. This is to ensure that the security of the information contained in the documents is maintained.

Any local authorities unable to access their APT should contact ESFA’s APT mailbox via:

APTsubmissions.QUESTIONS@education.gov.uk

3. 2022 to 2023 changes

This section addresses any changes to last year’s APT or important factors which need to be considered whilst completing the APT.

Several changes have been made for the 2022 to 2023 APT. The main points to note are:

• an optional distance taper has been added to the calculation of sparsity funding - where selected, this taper entitles schools within 20% of the sparsity distance threshold to a proportion of the sparsity lump sum
• the teachers’ pay grant (TPG) and teachers’ pension employer contribution grants (TPECG) are now included in schools’ baselines - the submitted baselines and final baselines worksheets no longer require this information entering
• following the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 primary school assessments and KS2 tests due to coronavirus (COVID-19), the low prior attainment (LPA) ratios for years 1, 2, 7 and 8 for each school will be updated using the corresponding school’s ratio for pupils in years 3 or 9 where available or, for new schools, the local authority average for years 3 or 9
• FSM6 eligibility is now calculated from the October 2021 census, in line with the pupil premium
• from 2022 to 2023, national non-domestic rates (NNDR) will be paid by ESFA directly to billing authorities - business rates will remain part of national funding formula (NFF) allocations (as technically business rates remain part of the Schools Budget), both the local authorities’ and the local authority maintained schools’ budgets would continue to include the rates funding - ESFA would no longer pay over physical cash for rates in the DSG, and local authorities would no longer include the cash for rates in maintained school budget payments; therefore in 2022 to 2023, the schools block DSG will be paid to local authorities excluding the rates element - in the APT, the rates figures from the 2021 to 2022 APT (used to calculate the rates allocation in the 2022 to 2023 NFF) will provide indicative rates figures for the 2022 to 2023 individual budget shares and new fields have been added to reverse these rates amounts out from the final budget allocations - it’s important to note that the proposed change does not represent a change in funding levels, but instead represents a more streamlined system which restructures the payment process of existing funding - this is just a transitional arrangement for 2022 to 2023 and these details will not need to be added in future years - you can read about the changes to the payment process of schools’ business rates document
• local authorities are required to enter the total rates figure from the 2021 to 2022 APT on the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet - the rates figure for all schools from the 2021 to 2022 APT are included on the ‘IndicativeNFF NNDR PaidBy ESFA’ worksheet. Schools ISB will include this indicative NFF NNDR figure, but the APT (in the new ISB, proforma and school level SB sheets) will also show the cash position i.e., the total DSG SB allocation after the deduction of the 2022 to 2023 NFF NNDR figure
• local authorities also need to provide estimates of their 2022 to 2023 rates figures based on the known changes to rateable values and considering the 2022 to 2023 multiplier (on the new ’Local authority estimate of NNDR 22-23’ worksheet). This information will be used to aid the new process by providing useful estimates for comparisons for future years and does not affect 2022 to 2023 funding

4. Timeline

The December version of the APT is for local authorities to model their 2022 to 2023 schools block funding formulae and to return this information to ESFA. The APT is populated with schools block data, primarily drawn from the October 2021 schools census.

The completed APT must be returned to ESFA by 21 January 2022.

5. APT structure and key components

The following sections provide detailed information about the rationale behind the colour coding of worksheets, cells and details about the content or function of each of these worksheets.

Please note, in each worksheet there are several comments embedded into various cells. These comments provide hints and tips to the user, and reminders of what should and should not be entered into that cell or column.

Comments are indicated by the small red triangle at the top right-hand corner of a cell and can be seen by placing the mouse cursor over the cell.

5.1 Colour coding of worksheets

The colour coding of the worksheets (which is also reflected in the cells of the worksheets themselves), denote the following:

Yellow - prepopulated (non-editable) data

There are 5 prepopulated worksheets in the APT. These worksheets will also have yellow cells, this is to denote that they are prepopulated and non-editable.

Please note, these yellow (non-editable) cells can appear in other worksheets as well, depending on the purpose of that worksheet.

Please do not attempt to unlock and amend the yellow prepopulated cells. If you submit your APT with any of the protections removed, ESFA will request that you resubmit with the protections restored.

Blue - requires user input

There are 12 worksheets in the APT that may require a degree of user input. These worksheets will also have blue cells - this denotes that they are user editable.

These worksheets together contain the data required for the APT to be able to automatically calculate school-level budgets for you.

Please note, these blue (editable) cells can appear in other worksheets as well, depending on the purpose of that worksheet.

Purple - automated calculation/output

There are 5 worksheets in the APT that are populated automatically using cell formulae, derived from the data contained in the prepopulated and user-input worksheets.

These worksheets contain a degree of automatic calculation, which form the outputs of the APT. These worksheets will also have purple cells to denote that they are calculation cells (non-editable). Although the cell formulae cannot be edited, the user can left click on any of these cells to view the formula used to populate it.

Please note, these purple (non-editable calculation) cells can appear in other worksheets as well, depending on the purpose of that worksheet. Automatic calculation has been used wherever possible throughout the APT, to avoid local authorities having to do unnecessary additional calculations and to prevent the risk of errors when using the same piece of data in more than one place, in one or more worksheets.

For example, the ‘New ISB’ worksheet calculates the funding allocated to each school under each factor, based on the data contained in the prepopulated worksheets, the user input worksheets and the funding formula factors, as specified in the ‘Proforma’ worksheet. This negates the need for the local authorities to carry out the same calculation and then enter the results themselves.

Please do not attempt to unlock and amend the purple automatic calculation cells. If you submit your APT with any of the protections removed, ESFA will request that you resubmit with the protections restored.

5.2 APT worksheets

The following gives a brief description of the content and purpose of the worksheets which make up the APT.

Cover

This worksheet gives information about the APT, with the main table listing each of the other worksheets and providing a brief explanation of them.

Throughout the APT, some of the automatic calculations (purple cells) use Microsoft Excel ‘named ranges’ to help simplify the formulae - the ‘Cover’ worksheet contains a table showing these cells and the named ranges these relate to.

There is also a table at the top of the worksheet which must be completed before the APT is submitted to ESFA. See the guidance on How to complete the authority proforma tool.

Users are also required to confirm that political ratification has been received. Political ratification is the approval needed under the local authority’s internal scheme of delegation, required for the local authority to be able to issue budgets to maintained schools before 28 February.

It may be given by the local authority’s cabinet, cabinet member, mayor, or Director of Children’s Services (DCS) but not the schools forum, because that only has a consultative role for the formula.

The date should be as early as possible, to enable the local authority to meet the requirement to issue budgets to maintained schools before the end of February and must be no later than 28 February 2022.

A validation error will occur where users do not check the box or have entered an invalid date.

Schools Block Data

This worksheet contains the school-level pupil numbers and indicators, for the most part based on autumn (October) school census returns. The table below summarises the source data for each indicator/factor.

A detailed description of all the data items can be found in the schools block dataset technical specification, which was published December 2021.

Data	Breakdown	Data source
School Iist	LAEstab, URN, local authority, phase, primary year groups, secondary year groups	Mainstream schools on autumn 2021 census. The URN is matched from get information about schools (GIAS)
Academy type	Recoupment Academy or 0 (0 is a maintained school)	Taken from the department’s records - showing status on the date of the autumn 2021 census
London fringe	Not London fringe – 1; London fringe - 1.0156360164. Alternative London fringe values based on the ACA factor in the NFF calculations: Buckinghamshire: 1.0179; Essex: 1.0343; Hertfordshire: 1.0310; Kent: 1.0373; West Sussex: 1.0574	District as mapped from the school postcode in the autumn 2021 census. The alternative values have been recalculated using the ACA multipliers in the latest NFF model
Year groups	Primary and secondary for middle schools. Primary, secondary, key stage 3 and key stage 4 for all schools	Autumn 2021 census
Number on roll (NOR)	Primary, secondary, reception, years 1 to 6, key stage 3, key stage 4, year 7, year 8, year 9, year 10, year 11	Autumn 2021 census
Reception difference	Difference between on roll in year R, autumn 2019 and spring 2020	Autumn 2020 and spring 2021 census
Free school meals (FSM)	Separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census
FSM6	Separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census
IDACI	IDACI ranks taken from the 2019 index of multiple deprivation (IMD) data split into 6 different bands, separate primary/secondary	Pupil postcodes mapped from autumn 2021 census. 2019 IMD
English as an additional language (EAL)	First, first to second, first to third year in system; separate primary/secondary	Autumn 2021 census for language group, plus autumn 2018, 2019 and 2020 censuses. Mapping on unique pupil number (UPN) for on-roll records
Looked-after children (LAC)	Aggregated information indicating looked-after children (on 31 March 2021)	SSDA903 March 2021 data mapped onto the spring 2021 census via the national pupil database (NPD)
Primary phase low prior attainment (LPA)	Y1 to Y6 who did not achieve a good level of development	Early years foundation stage profile (EYFSP) total score mapped to the autumn 2021 census. Mapping on UPN only. As there were no EYFSP tests in 2020 or 2021 the Y1 and Y2 ratios will use the Y3 ratio or the local authority Y3 average
Secondary Phase LPA	Y7, Y8, Y9, Y10 and Y11 who did not achieve the expected level of attainment	KS2 attainment data mapped to the autumn 2021 census. Mapping on UPN only. As there were no KS2 tests in 2020 or 2021 the Y7 and Y8 ratios will use the Y9 ratio or the local authority Y9 average
Mobility	Primary or secondary. Pupil appears in census data at the same school as in the October 2021 census for the first time in a January or May census in 2019 or later. For pupils in reception only, those first appearing at their current school in the May census are classed as mobile. As a result of the cancellation of the summer 2020 census any pupil with an entry date at the current school which is after the spring 2020 census date (16 January 2020) and up to, and including, the summer 2020 census date (21 May 2020) will be classed as mobile	Autumn 2021 census
Sparsity	Primary, secondary, middle, all through	Autumn 2021 census, GIAS, OS road network data

Note that for the sparsity factor, all middle and all-through schools’ sparsity distances are given under the ‘secondary sparsity av. distance to 2nd school’ column in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet. This is a presentational issue only and the rules for pupil numbers and distances are different for middle, all through and secondary schools.

Please also note that this is a locked worksheet, and you cannot make any amendments to it. If you wish to update any of the data shown in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet, you need to update the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet.

21-22 submitted baselines

This worksheet contains the 2021 to 2022 school-level baselines submitted by local authorities to ESFA, covering the maintained schools and academies. This data is used to populate the ‘21-22 final baselines’ worksheet which then calculates the 2021 to 2022 MFG per-pupil school’s budget share (SBS).

Please note that this is a locked worksheet, and you cannot make any amendments to it. If you wish to update any of the data shown in the ‘21-22 submitted baselines’ worksheet, you need to update the ‘21-22 final baselines’ worksheet.

21-22 HN places

This worksheet contains the latest information held by ESFA on the number of pre-16 high needs places in each mainstream school and each academy with a special unit or resourced provision in the local authority. The information for academies relates to 2021 to 2022, as collected via the high needs templates submitted by local authorities to ESFA. The information for maintained schools has been taken from the 2021 to 2022 s251 budget data.

This worksheet is included for information purposes only and does not feed into any of the APT calculations.

You may wish to refer to this prepopulated worksheet when providing the required data in the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet. With respect to high needs, local authorities should use the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet to provide details about:

• special units or resourced provision at each school, that are designated as such by the local authority for making special provision for pupils with education, health and care (EHC) plans
• the numbers of primary, key stage 3 (KS3) and key stage 4 (KS4) pupils who are registered at the school (main registrations only) and are occupying places in the unit or resourced provision—the numbers must exclude pupils in those places who are not registered at the school or are in a nursery class (see the section about the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet for more information)

Please note that this is a locked worksheet, and you cannot make any amendments to it.

Proposed free schools

This worksheet contains details of free schools not included on the previous October census and proposed to open before the end of the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The worksheet is included for information purposes only and does not feed into any of the APT calculations.

Local authorities should use the information held on this worksheet to enter the school’s details on the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet and, where the school is not open for the whole year, the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet.

The worksheet includes ratios for each of the factors included in the schools block, taken from the local authority averages and, where applicable, the proportion of the year for which the school will be open. The data does not contain a full breakdown of the pupil numbers. To enable the inputting of this information, the expected minimum and maximum pupil numbers are included.

Please note that this is a locked worksheet, and you cannot make any amendments to it.

IndicativeNFF NNDR PaidBy ESFA

This worksheet contains details of the rates figures for each school taken from the 2021 to 2022 APT (and used in the 2022 to 2023 NFF calculations). The information should be used to complete column X of the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet.

Please note that this is a locked worksheet, and you cannot make any amendments to it.

Inputs & Adjustments

Entries made in this worksheet will, in many cases, change the order of the schools on the subsequent worksheets of the APT. It is therefore important that this is completed in full before making any other changes.

This worksheet allows users to adjust the data for maintained schools and academies, displayed in the prepopulated ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet, where the schools or pupil details do not reflect the schools, the local authority expects to fund during 2022 to 2023 or their current situation. Recording changes in this way aims to make it easier for local authorities and ESFA to identify any amendments made.

Please note, adjustments made to records in this worksheet will not be reflected in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet, as this is locked and cannot be changed.

Any changes (such as new schools, closed schools, mergers) recorded in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet, will be reflected in the list of schools displayed in the following worksheets:

• ‘Local Factors’
• ‘LA estimate of NNDR 22-23’
• ‘Adjusted Factors’
• ‘21-22 final baselines’
• ‘De Delegation’
• ‘New ISB’
• ‘Recoupment’

It is therefore vitally important that after recording adjustments in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet, the user reviews the school list shown in the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet. The user should ensure that it reflects the maintained schools and academies expected to be funded in 2022 to 2023, before continuing to enter data into the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet.

Users should use this worksheet to record:

• where schools listed in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet have closed, or will close before the end of the 2021 to 2022 financial year
• new maintained schools which have opened or are expected to open before the end of the financial year
• new maintained schools which are expected to open after the end of the financial year
• new academies and free schools
• academies which have amalgamated since the October census, or are expected to amalgamate before the end of the financial year
• where maintained schools have converted to academy status before 4 January 2022
• changes required to the existing school data listed in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet, pertaining to numbers on roll or proportions of pupils eligible for each pupil-led factor - this is where the October data does not reflect the current position

If any changes are to be made to the NOR of a year group, entries must then be made into the remainder of the NOR categories, even if these figures have not changed or are 0 values. If a year group is added to or removed from a school, then this must also be reflected in the number of year groups for the school. Where pupils are added for a proportion of the year, we recommend entering this as a formula to avoid rounding.

For all other values, such as the proportions of pupils eligible for each pupil-led factor, entries only need to be made when the figure is different from what is shown in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet. Any changes made will be reflected in the data shown in the ‘Adjusted Factors’ worksheet. If a proportion is unchanged then it does not need to be entered on the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet.

The proportions shown in the ‘Adjusted Factors’ worksheet for the above will automatically convert to a pupil number basis on the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet, once inputted.

Local Factors

In this worksheet you will need to enter the local data relevant to the individual schools.

The school details listed in columns L, M and N are populated automatically based on the schools in the ‘Schools Block Data’ worksheet, plus any adjustments the user has recorded in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet. Entries made in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet will, in many cases, change the order of the schools on the subsequent worksheets of the APT (including the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet). It is therefore important that this is completed in full before making any other changes.

It is also important to check that the automatically listed school data is correct for the maintained schools and academies expected to be funded in the 2022 to 2023 financial year before entering any data against the schools.

Do not attempt to add any schools to this worksheet. Any changes to the automatically populated school list need to be recorded using the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet, as instructed above.

If after having entered data in the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet, you then record further adjustments in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet, the order of the ‘Local Factors’ school list may have changed. The data you have entered in the blue cells will stay in the same place. As such, some or all the data may appear against the wrong school or academy.

LA estimate of NNDR 22-23

In this worksheet you will need to enter details of the estimated 2022 to 2023 rates for each school, based on the known changes to rateable values and considering the 2022 to 2023 multiplier. This information will not impact on the calculations in the APT but will be used to aid the new process, by providing useful estimates for comparisons for future years.

Adjusted factors

This worksheet calculates the adjusted pupil numbers to be used in the final school budgets calculations, outputted automatically to the ‘New ISB’ worksheet. This draws data from the ‘Schools Block Data’, ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ and the ‘Local Factors’ worksheets.

The worksheet is initially populated with the same list of schools as found in the ‘Local Factors’ worksheet. It then calculates the adjusted NOR and pupil numbers for all factors by multiplying the proportion of the year the school will be open for, by the relevant figure from either the ‘Schools Block Data’ or the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheets (dependant on whether there is an update or not).

Please note that the worksheet is entirely populated using spreadsheet formulae. This cannot be deleted or edited; however, the user can left click on any cell to view the formula used.

21-22 final baselines

In this worksheet, the user is required to provide the 2021 to 2022 schools’ baseline information, where this data is missing from the 2021 to 2022 submitted baselines worksheet. In addition, the 2021 to 2022 MFG exclusions and adjustments need to be input, as these contribute to the MFG calculations in the ‘New ISB’ worksheet.

The schools list in columns G, H and I are populated automatically, based on the information previously provided in the ‘Inputs & Adjustments’ worksheet.

The 2021 to 2022 baseline information in columns J to N are also populated automatically from the ’21-22 submitted baselines’ worksheet, with the relevant data as submitted by local authorities to ESFA. In particular, these columns include:

• ’21-22 MFG NOR’ (column J)—this is the 2021 to 2022 NOR, excluding the reception uplift (if applicable) adjusted for the proportion of the year the school was open for
• ’21-22 Rates’ (column K)—this is the 2021 to 2022 rates
• ’21-22 Post-MFG Budget’ (column L)—this is the school’s post-MFG budget, which feeds into the ‘New ISB’ worksheet
• ’21-22 Opening/Closing’ (column M)—this is the proportion of funding year 2021 to 2022 that the school was open for
• ‘Additional lump sum for schools…’ (column N)—this is the additional lump sum given in 2021 to 2022 for schools that amalgamated during 2020 to 2021

The ’21-22 MFG SBS Total’ and ’21-22 MFG SBS per pupil’ (columns AF and AG respectively) are calculated and used in the MFG calculations that feed into the ‘New ISB’ worksheet.

For any MFG exclusions and adjustments, the user must ensure that the full details, preferably formulaically, are entered into the relevant sections of the ‘Commentary’ worksheet.

Please note that if a narrative is not provided, a ‘fail’ indication will be present in the ‘Validation’ worksheet.

Commentary

If any of the factors listed in Annex B of the How to complete the authority proforma tool guidance have been used in any other worksheet in the APT, or if the user is applying any of these funding elements outside the APT, then full details of the methodology used and (where appropriate) examples, must be provided.

Please note if ‘Growth’, ‘Additional funding from the high needs budget’ or ‘Falling rolls funding’ is identified, criteria need to be supplied and these amounts should be included in the S251 budget statement in the appropriate lines (‘1.4.10 Pupil growth’, ‘1.4.5 Falling Rolls Fund’ or ‘1.2.4 Additional high needs targeted funding for mainstream schools and academies’)

Embedded documents may also be included, if this would be deemed helpful and column F has been added to the worksheet for this purpose.

Please note that if the sum of one or more factors or exclusions included in this worksheet is different from ‘nil’ and no commentary has been provided, there will be a ‘fail’ indication in the ‘Validation’ worksheet.

Proforma

The ‘Proforma’ worksheet is designed for the user to enter the unit values for the local authority’s funding allocation.

In this worksheet, the relevant blue cells (dependant on the factors used) need to be completed and as with all the other worksheets of the APT, the purple cells are calculation cells and cannot be edited.

The relevant pupil units for all the pupil-led factors are populated automatically in columns G and H, which is fed by the data from the ‘Adjusted Factors’ worksheet.

Once the relevant data has been entered, the sub-total and total funding amounts (as well as the proportion of total funding) are calculated in the columns I, J and K respectively.

With any optional factors not used in the local authority’s formula, simply leave the blue cells blank.

Block transfers

This worksheet compares the funding allocated through the APT against the SB funding allocated in the DSG.

The worksheet allows users to enter details of any funding transferred out of the schools block to any of the other DSG blocks, and also details of any funding transferred into the schools block. If the net funding allocated through the APT is lower than the DSG schools block allocation, then details must be provided of either:

• the schools forum approval (for transfers up to 0.5% – for further information please refer to the Schools operational guide: 2022 to 2023) - please note, the transfer amount is calculated on the whole of the SB funding prior to rates cash adjustment.
• the reference of the disapplication approving the transfer (where the transfer exceeds 0.5% or forum approval has not been received)
• details of any block transfers agreed through the safety valve process

De Delegation

This worksheet should be used to detail any de-delegation values. This is where an agreement exists for specific budgets to be handed back to the local authority, by maintained schools, to be funded centrally.

For the purposes of de-delegation, please note that:

• middle-deemed secondary and all-through schools have a de-delegation calculation based on both their primary and secondary pupil numbers
• academies have a de-delegation value of ‘£0.00’

Education functions

Local authorities can fund specific services relating to maintained schools only from maintained school budget shares. This is with the agreement of maintained school members of the schools forum.

The ‘Education Functions’ worksheet collects this information. The amount entered will be a single per-pupil rate for pupils aged 5 to 16 years old, for all mainstream maintained schools.

New ISB

This is an output worksheet displaying the new individual school budgets (ISB) for all the local authority’s schools, derived from the original school level data and any adjustments to the data recorded by the user in the editable worksheets.

The per-pupil amounts that have been entered in the proforma (the factor proportions and unit rates) have been combined with NOR to display a breakdown of the different elements contributing to each final ISB.

The New ISB has been updated for 2022 to 2023 to show the funding allocated to each school after deduction of the NFF NNDR allocation.

Please note that the worksheet is entirely populated using spreadsheet formulae. This cannot be deleted or edited; however, the user can left click on any cell to view the formula used.

School level SB

In this worksheet, the user simply selects (or manually enters) the LAEstab of a school in their local authority. The tables contained in the ‘School level SB’ worksheet (such as the proforma and de-delegation tables) will then be populated with the factors and unit values already populated/selected in the respective worksheets, along with the school’s details.

This worksheet allows the user to display the funding that the selected school will receive, under the formula entered into the APT. In addition to showing the total funding allocated to the selected school the table also shows the funding after the deduction of the 2022 to 2023 NFF NNDR.

The purple cells are automatically populated using formulae and therefore, the content of these cells cannot be edited. Otherwise, this worksheet is not locked, so the user will have the ability to adjust it to the local authority’s needs.

For example, you can:

• add rows
• delete rows (that do not contain purple cells)
• adjust row heights
• add columns
• delete columns (that do not contain purple cells)
• adjust column widths
• overtype any text (not contained in purple cells)

The print range is pre-set to print both tables shown on this sheet, but the user can also adjust this if required.

There is also space for the local authority to include their logo or crest on this page. As such, the user may find the worksheet helpful for generating a summary of the 2022 to 2023 funding, which can then be published on the local authority/school intranet, or to send to schools in the local authority.

Recoupment

This worksheet estimates the amount to be recouped required for all academies that are open prior to 4 January 2022. This cut-off date is set to make sure that only known conversions are recorded and to ensure consistency across local authorities. Columns D to G are automatically populated with the list of academies and their post-MFG budgets (after the deduction of 2022 to 2023 NFF NNDR), calculated in the ‘New ISB’ worksheet.

Growth funding adjustments and the narrative to support these (including calculations) are recorded by the user in this worksheet (column J, if applicable). ESFA will only be able to exclude this figure from the total recoupment amount if they are satisfied that the growth fund payments are appropriate and consistent with the narrative agreed in the local authorities 2021 to 2022 APT.

Where a local authority makes a growth fund payment to an academy from September 2021, the local authority should continue this payment until the end of August 2022 as that is when the academy receives its revised funding allocation. To enable local authorities to continue these payments for the period April 2022 to August 2022, ESFA will make an appropriate recoupment adjustment. This adjustment can only be made if it is supported by sufficient evidence, as provided in the required narrative.

Growth fund recoupment adjustments will not be made for ‘diseconomies of scale’ or ‘start-up’ funding. This funding will continue to be met from the local authority’s growth fund for the year in which the growth fund is paid.

Growth fund recoupment adjustments can only be made in respect of the period April to August 2022, to cover payments made to academies for increased pupil numbers from September 2021. This is because these pupils will be included in the October 2021 census data, which is used to calculate DSG payments and subsequently, the ISB for academies which ESFA will then recoup. A recoupment adjustment is appropriate in these circumstances because ESFA will have already recouped DSG funding in respect of the additional pupils, but the academies will not receive this funding until September 2022.

Please note that the recoupment figures calculated in this sheet are provisional and are subject to change. ESFA will write to each local authority by the end of April 2022 to provide the final recoupment amounts, with respect to all academies that will have opened by 31 March 2022.

After initial recoupment calculations, ESFA will then update at points throughout the year, to reflect schools converting/opening.

Post-16 infrastructure changes

This worksheet has been included for local authorities to tell us about any infrastructure changes happening in maintained schools so that we can calculate 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations for academic year 2022 to 2023.

Infrastructure changes often require us to adjust individual school allocations. We need to know about these now so that we can calculate and deliver accurate 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations by March 2022 and avoid late notification to schools of budget changes.

Any changes in academy sixth forms that you are aware of should also be entered here. We will use your information to confirm these with the regional school commissioner responsible for approving significant changes with academies.

Validation

This worksheet contains important information, influenced solely by the user input throughout the APT. The worksheet is designed to help the local authority, should they wish to undertake any modelling and it should be used as the final review point, prior to the submission of the proforma to ESFA.

Throughout the APT there are several in-cell validation checks in place which are there to help prevent invalid data being entered (for example, short LAEstab numbers). In addition to these checks, the ‘Validation’ worksheet provides further automated checks to help minimise the entry of data which would result in an incorrect or unallowable allocation being calculated.

The worksheet displays a variety of pass/fail checks at differing levels. From the high-level analysis of values in the ‘Proforma’ worksheet (for example, checking the lump sums allocated do not exceed £175,000) to a lower level, such as ensuring that the NOR figures provided for the primary year groups at a specific school are equal to the same school’s total primary NOR.

At the very top of the worksheet there is the cumulative check. If the result is a pass, it indicates that all other checks have been passed.

Please note, passing all of these checks does not necessarily mean the APT will be approved by ESFA. For example, even if the result is a pass on the check relevant to the ‘Commentary’ worksheet, ESFA will still have to confirm that the narratives provided by the user comply with the regulations, or that MFG exclusions have been approved.

ESFA has not been able to build in checks to cover all scenarios but when creating the APT, ESFA has tried to cover most issues which have resulted in the need to resubmit APTs in the past.

The table of checks at school level, also has a cumulative check at the top of each column. If:

• the check is a pass - this indicates that all schools listed in the table below have passed that check
• the check is a fail - this indicates that at least one of the schools listed in the table below will be flagged as failing the check, and the user should scroll down the list to identify where the problem presents itself

The ‘Validation’ worksheet is there to help the local authority ensure that the data has been entered correctly. Failed checks will not prevent submission of the APT, however, an APT submitted with failed checks is likely to require re-submission.

6. Contact information

Any questions or queries about the APT and how it works, or requests for the password to open your APT file should be made to:

APTsubmissions.QUESTIONS@education.gov.uk