Schools Income and Expenditure Reporting Framework
Summary
The Department for Education (DfE) publishes guidance on the Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) framework for maintained schools and pupil referral units in England. The framework provides standard templates for schools to collect and report income and expenditure data by financial year. Schools must submit financial statements to their local authorities using approved headings under The Consistent Financial Reporting (England) Regulations 2012. Annual frameworks are published for 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27 school years.
What changed
The guidance establishes the Consistent Financial Reporting framework used by maintained schools and pupil referral units in England to standardize income and expenditure reporting. The CFR framework provides definitions for each reporting code as set out in The Consistent Financial Reporting (England) Regulations 2012. Schools must include all resources received in the financial year, application of those resources, and a summary of their financial position at year-end.\n\nAffected parties—local authority finance officers, school finance officers, business managers, and bursars—must ensure financial statements align with the approved headings in the regulations. The information supports benchmarking through the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool, enabling comparisons with similar schools. Annual frameworks are updated each year, with the 2026 to 2027 framework added on 16 March 2026. Schools should access the relevant annual framework and follow COLLECT submission guides.
What to do next
- Review the Consistent Financial Reporting framework for 2026 to 2027
- Submit financial statements to local authorities using approved CFR headings
- Access COLLECT guides for data submission procedures
Archived snapshot
Apr 16, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Guidance
Consistent financial reporting (CFR) framework
A framework to help schools to collect information about their income and expenditure.
From: Education and Skills Funding Agency and Department for Education Published 21 April 2015 Last updated 16 March 2026
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Applies to England
Print this page The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.
Introduction
This guidance applies to maintained schools and pupil referral units and is for:
- local authority finance officers
- school finance officers
- business managers
- bursars It is optional for nurseries and non-maintained special schools.
The consistent financial reporting (CFR) framework provides a standard template for schools to collect information about their income and expenditure by financial years, which maintained schools provide to their local authorities in a financial statement each year.
Financial statements must be in line with the approved headings set out in the The Consistent Financial Reporting (England) Regulations 2012.
The guidance provides definitions for each CFR code set out in the regulations.
Financial statements include:
- school resources received in a financial year, including any unspent at the end of the previous year
- the application of any school resources
- a summary of the school’s financial position at the end of the year The information supports benchmarking and enables governors and local authorities to produce simple reports. The financial benchmarking website enables comparisons of school income and expenditure profiles with similar schools.
We have published guides to help schools and local authorities submit data using COLLECT (collections online - learners, education, children and teachers). The guides include information on accessing COLLECT, and uploading and submitting data.
Consistent financial reporting framework 2026 to 2027
View the consistent financial reporting framework for 2026 to 2027.
Consistent financial reporting framework 2025 to 2026
View the consistent financial reporting framework for 2025 to 2026.
Consistent financial reporting framework 2024 to 2025
View the consistent financial reporting framework for 2024 to 2025.
To view frameworks published prior to 2024 to 2025, please visit The National Archives website.
Consistent financial reporting data
Data for 2014 to 2015 onwards is published on the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool.
Published 21 April 2015 Last updated 16 March 2026 show all updates
1.
16 March 2026
Added the 'Consistent financial reporting framework for 2026 to 2027' and updated archive links.
2.
10 April 2025
Consistent financial reporting framework 2025 to 2026 added to page.
3.
3 April 2024
We have added a link to the consistent financial reporting framework 2024 to 2025.
4.
29 March 2023
The consistent financial reporting framework for 2023 to 2024 has now been published
5.
5 April 2022
Updated to include the 2022 to 2023 guidance link.
6.
16 December 2021
Updated to include section 'consistent financial reporting data'. 'Consistent financial reporting framework 2018 to 2019' section has been removed and can be found on the national archives website.
7.
10 August 2021
Added link to the consistent financial reporting framework 2021 to 2022
8.
19 June 2020
Links to the consistent financial reporting frameworks for 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 have been added.
9.
16 November 2018
We've updated the 2018 to 2019 guidance to include information about where to code the new teachers pay grant.
10.
21 March 2018
We've published the consistent financial reporting guidance for 2018 to 2019
11.
30 March 2017
Updated with guidance for 2017 to 2018.
12.
23 March 2016
Updated with COLLECT instruction guides for 2015 to 2016 for schools and local authorities
13.
17 March 2016
Updated to add the consistent financial reporting (CFR) framework guidance for 2016 to 2017 financial year.
14.
21 April 2015
First published.
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