Filters & Groups: IDACI bands
Updated
It is possible to filter and group pupils by IDACI (Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index) band.
It is found in the Filter Pupils menu in the Pupil Premium, FSM, etc submenu. Once selected you can filter a specific band or choose multiple ones.
You can also Group Pupils by IDACI band where available.
To support highlighting pupils in vulnerable groups, you can also use IDACI as part of a Match Any filter and save as part of a Custom Filter.
IDACI is also available to add as a column in Tables reports.
What is IDACI?
The Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) is a sub-measure of the Indices of Deprivation used in England,
It specifically focuses on the proportion of children aged 0–15 living in income-deprived families within each small geographic area (known as an LSOA — Lower-layer Super Output Area).
IDACI is used to:
- Identify areas where children are most affected by income deprivation.
- Support funding allocations for education, childcare, and social services.
- Inform local authorities, schools, and policymakers when planning interventions.
How is IDACI calculated?
The IDACI score ranges from 0 to 1 — e.g., a score of 0.25 means 25% of children in that area live in income-deprived areas.
In education, the Department for Education (DfE) uses IDACI bands (A–G) to allocate additional funding to schools through measures such as the Pupil Premium and school performance analysis.
Band A consists of pupils living in the most deprived areas, and Band G the least deprived.
Pupils themselves don’t have an IDACI score in the source data — it’s derived by matching their home postcode to the area-level IDACI data. So pupil's will have different scores but be considered within the same IDACI band.
Insight uses the publicly available 2019 postcode data to create the filters and data.
Caution
IDACI, as part of the Indicies of Deprivation, is designed primarily to be a small-area measures of relative deprivation and should not be used for drawing any conclusions about individual pupils.
For example:
At the neighbourhood-level, the IoD2019 provides a place-based insight into deprivation. However, this description does not apply to every person living in these areas. Many non-deprived people live in deprived areas, and many deprived people live in non-deprived areas. It is important to note that the IoD2019 is designed to identify and measure specific aspects of deprivation, rather than measures of affluence.
