What’s new for 2024 to 2025

Summary of main changes for 2024 to 2025.

Below you will find details of some of the key changes we would like to highlight

DfE wishes to collect more information from schools about spend in key areas of technology that can lead to cost and time savings in the longer term.

We want all schools to reap the benefits of technology, but we know it can be expensive. It is important that schools invest in technology that meets their educational objectives. 

Schools have told us that understanding spend on key areas of technology will help them to:

  • evaluate whether the technology is meeting the needs of staff and pupils
  • make decisions on whether to stop or continue investing in the technologies
  • budget and plan for technology to support maintenance, repairs and refresh

This will also help  DfE develop better programmes and services that support schools and trusts to be more informed buyers of technology, ensure they are safe and secure, and to support system wide efficiencies.

We will collect this new information through the CFR framework from 2024 to 2025. This will require some additions to the technology spend lines, and some exclusions from other lines. These additional spend lines are explained in section E20: ICT learning resources and section CE04: information and communication technology’ of this guidance.

Technology spend includes a high proportion of  capital as well as revenue and this will vary from school to school and local authority to local authority because of local accounting rules. Therefore, we are looking to collect additional information through category CE04 in the capital expenditure section as well as E20 in the revenue expenditure section.

Capital versus revenue

Category Revenue (E20) Capital (CE04)
Connectivity Y Y
Onsite servers Y Y
IT learning resources Y N
Administration software and systems Y Y
Laptops, desktops and tablets Y Y
Other hardware Y Y
IT support Y N