Home › Map School money map See how school budgets compare across England, council by council or constituency by constituency. Pick a measure and a year, then tap an area or a school for its figures.
The map needs JavaScript. The table below lists every council, and every council has its own page: browse councils .
£ figures are cash for each year, not adjusted for inflation.
Why schools go into deficit Most of a school's money goes on people: over 80% of schools' costs are staff costs. So when pay and other costs rise faster than funding, or a school loses pupils and the money that comes with each one, the budget is squeezed quickly and staffing is the only big thing left to cut. In 2024–25 and 2025–26, mainstream school funding per pupil grew by 2 percentage points less than school costs, partly because rising special needs costs took a large share of the extra money. A deficit usually comes from several of these pressures at once, not one bad decision. (IFS, Annual report on education spending in England: 2025–26 (January 2026), p.62–63)
What helps: a plan agreed with the council or trust to bring the budget back into balance over a few years, forecasts that governors see often, and early talks about pupil numbers and special needs funding. The guides list questions to ask. Questions for governors · for parents .