Financial Control No.5a - application for approval of redundancy costs for essential redundancies
6 October 2025
In January 2025, the Schools Funding Forum, maintained schools representatives agreed to the creation of the redundancy and early retirement fund paid for from the de-delegation and buy-back arrangement for 2025-26.
The fund was intended to meet the costs of both redundancy and associated pension strain costs, with access continuing as per the current policy. Schools are able to access the fund to support the cost of redundancy and associated early retirement costs where the redundancy is necessary to address a potential budget deficit.
On Friday 19 September, the Schools Funding Forum reviewed Financial Control 5a, application for approval of redundancy costs to ensure future affordability of the fund. The updated policy tightens the criteria and updates at which point schools can apply.
Please find the updated policy (DOCX, 65.4 KB).
The amended policy will apply to all new applications from Friday 19 September onwards.