Submit your section 151 officer assurance return and schools financial value standard assurance statement
Guidance for local authorities on how to complete the section 151 (S151) officer assurance return and the schools financial value standard assurance (SFVS) statement for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
What’s new?
Changes from 2024 to 2025 cycle
In pre-16 we’ve reduced funding lines required for report, from fourteen to eleven. The lines no longer required are:
- early years budget grant
- early years supplementary grant
- national professional qualification targeted support funding
- national tutoring programme
- recovery premium grant
- senior mental health lead training grant
- teachers’ pay additional grant
- teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG)
The new lines required added are:
- breakfast club early adopters grant
- early years expansion grant
- early years national insurance contributions and teachers’ pay grant
- National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant
- school budget support grant (SBSG)
In post-16 we’ve added funding lines required to report, from eight to eleven. The lines no longer required are:
- 16 to 19 bursary fund (vulnerable groups)
- 16 to 19 teachers’ pension scheme employer contribution grant
The new lines required are:
- 16 to 19 bursary fund (defined vulnerable groups)
- 16 to 19 bursary fund (discretionary bursaries)
- 16 to 19 teachers’ pension scheme
- Care to Learn
- (NICs) grant
Purpose of the returns
The section 151 (S151) officer assurance return is for the S151 officer to provide assurances that funding has been used for the intended purposes, in line with the terms and conditions of the grants and the funding rules, and they are not aware of any errors, exceptions or fraud.
Where grants are for an academic year and span 2 financial years, we are seeking assurance for the 2025 to 2026 financial year funding only.
The schools financial value standard (SFVS) assurance statement allows the S151 officer to confirm that they have a system of audit for schools in place that gives them adequate assurance over their standards of financial management and the regularity and propriety of their spending.
What you must report
Pre-16
You must report against each of the funding lines:
- breakfast club early adopters grant
- core schools budget grant (CSBG)
- early career framework backfill payments for time off timetable for mentor training
- early years expansion grant
- early years National Insurance contributions and teachers’ pay grant
- funding for time off timetable for early career teachers and mentors
- NICs grant
- PE and sport premium grant
- pupil premium
- SBSG
- universal infant free school meals grant
Post-16
You must report against each of the funding lines:
- 16 to 19 bursary fund (defined vulnerable groups)
- 16 to 19 bursary fund (discretionary bursaries)
- 16 to 19 teachers’ pension scheme
- 16 to 19 tuition fund
- adult skills fund (ASF)
- apprenticeships
- care to learn
- core funding (16-19)
- high needs (post-16)
- post-16 NICs grant
- post-16 schools budget grant
SFVS assurance statement
You must report against each of the funding lines for the:
- number of eligible schools in the local authority, broken down by school type
- number of eligible schools that have completed the SFVS, broken down by school type
- number of eligible schools that did not complete the SFVS, both with and without exemptions, broken down by school type
- number of eligible schools against each exemption reason
- name and unique reference number of each school that did not complete the SFVS without an exemption
- number of related party transactions entered into by schools with a value greater than £40,000
The deadline for the submission of all forms and the S151 officer statement declaration is 5pm on 5 June 2026.
If there are any queries about your return, please contact us through the Customer Help Portal.
Updates to this page
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Updated for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
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We have updated the 'If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account' section in the 'Section 151 (s151) officer return: guidance for completion of the digital form' guide. Users will now be required to add multi-factor authentication to verify their identity when creating their DfE Sign-in account.
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First published.