The ESFA told us that it was also keen to explore the reasons why maintained secondary schools appeared to be in more financial difficulty than maintained primary schools. The Department explained that the differences in the financial health of maintained primary and secondary schools had principally been driven by the different treatment in previous Spending Reviews of 16-to-19 funding compared with five-to-16 funding.22 We note that the Department reduced funding per sixth-form student, which contributed to the balance of funding shifting from secondary schools to primary schools, between 2014–15 and 2020–21.23 The Department said that it was keen to start to redress this position and was doing so through the extra funding committed in the 2021 Spending Review for both the school system as a whole and 16-to-19 students in particular.24 Financial health of academy trusts