On the page below you will find the 2026-27 budget tools provided to aid in your budget planning for next year and the strategic 3-year period.
You will need to open the toolkits (shown below), select your school from the drop-down menus (in school number order, however PRUs, Special Schools and Highfield Nursery are shown at the foot of the list) and save a copy to where you would normally save your toolkits etc.
1. Budget Toolkit: The toolkit will contain your delegated budget information split out by the blocks of funding – Schools and High Needs (where applicable). Within the toolkit there is the Budget Plan tab and feeding off this, the 3-year Strategic Plan. Please note, any federation school toolkits will be sent to those schools separately.
2. Budget Commentary: This provides further guidance and detail on funding and financial planning for 2026-27 and should be used in conjunction with the toolkits.
3. Budget Estimate Tool: This is an optional tool. Schools can choose to use this to aid in any further planning / modelling that schools may wish to undertake in supporting the 1 year and strategic planning submissions.
Financial difficulties: Schools that are struggling to balance their budgets and predicting a deficit in Year 1, 2 or 3 should, in the first instance, contact the Schools’ Accountancy Team [email protected] who will be able to advise on the next steps
and the support available from the Local Authority.
The expectation however is that schools should be taking a strategic approach to ensure there is an understanding of any potential deficits and acting as early as possible to ensure the long-term financial viability of the school. More information can be found in the budget commentary under Section 15. Financial Difficulties.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME (LGPS) UPDATE
The latest valuation of the Suffolk Pension Fund is nearing completion and revised employer contribution rates payable from April 2026 will be agreed at the end of February by the Pension Fund Committee. Local Authority Maintained Schools pay the same contribution rate as Suffolk County Council for staff in the Local Government Pension Scheme as staff are employed by the Council. The rates for the next three years are:
- April 2026 – 10%
- April 2027 – 16.4%
- April 2028 – 16.4%
The strong performance of fund investments has enabled the fund to reduce the contribution rate for 2026-27, whilst setting a rate for 2027-28 and 2028-29 in line with the stabilisation approach applied for long-term tax raising employers in the fund, which allows a maximum increase or decrease of 3% over a valuation cycle.
The LGPS is a defined benefit scheme. A defined benefit (DB) pension scheme promises to pay a specific amount of income in retirement. This amount is calculated based on the salary of the employee and the number of years the employee has been a member of the scheme. The reduction in the employer pension contribution rate will therefore not impact employees’ pension benefits now or in the future. Employee contribution rates are set nationally and the % paid is dependent on salary.
If you have any technical problems with the toolkit or any further queries on school funding, please contact: [email protected] in the first instance.