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<p>The write-off of pupil number adjustment recoveries for free schools is rare and
only authorised in exceptional circumstances, as it would be for any other type of
school.</p><p>The write-offs I referred to in my response to Question 56161 concerned
two schools – Al Madinah School and Stockport Technical School.</p><p>The Department
agreed to write-off a recovery of £609k for Al Madinah School relating to academic
year 2013/14, and £140k for Stockport Technical School relating to academic year 2014/15.
Al Madinah School was ending its secondary provision and Stockport Technical School
was closing completely.</p><p>This is short of the £800k quoted in my previous response,
which was rounded to hundreds of thousands. The write-off for Al Madinah School was
incorrectly rounded up rather than down to the nearest hundred thousand. These are
the only two write-offs in respect of free school pupil number adjustment recoveries,
totalling £749k.</p><p>Calculating and applying pupil number adjustments to bring
estimate-based funding allocations back into line with actual numbers is a normal,
intrinsic, planned part of the funding cycle. The Education Funding Agency does not
account separately for the resource spent on this, as it is just a small element of
the work to allocate and pay funding to academies and free schools.</p>
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