PE and sport premium: conditions of grant 2020 to 2021 (local authorities and maintained schools)
Updated 17 June 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pe-and-sport-premium-conditions-of-grant-2020-to-2021/pe-and-sport-premium-conditions-of-grant-2020-to-2021-local-authorities-and-maintained-schools
1. Introduction
The primary PE and sport premium 2020 to 2021 (“the premium”) will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education (“Secretary of State”) to the local authority (“authority”), as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002.In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the premium payable for the academic year 2020 to 2021. The authority is required to distribute the premium to maintained schools only (including pupil referral units and hospital schools but excluding maintained nursery schools).
The premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year is paid in 2 instalments from the Secretary of State to the authority as follows:
| Financial year | 2020 to 2021 academic year | Payment date |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 to 2021 | September 2020 to March 2021 | 30 October 2020 |
| 2021 to 2022 | April 2021 to August 2021 | 30 April 2021 |
2. Purpose of the premium
The premium must be used to fund additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport, for the benefit of primary-aged pupils, in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.
The Department for Education (DfE) has published information on how much PE and sport premium funding primary schools receive and advice on how to spend it.
3. Basis of allocation
Allocations for the academic year 2020 to 2021 are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January 2020 census, as follows:
- schools with 17 or more pupils receive £16,000 plus £10 per pupil
- schools with 16 or fewer pupils receive £1,000 per pupil
Where a school’s pupils are not recorded by year group, pupils aged 5 to 10 are deemed eligible.
In the case of a school which has opened or is due to open during the 2020 to 2021 academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn 2020 school census. Allocations for such schools will be paid by 31 January 2021 (first instalment) and on 30 April 2021 (second instalment).
The allocations for each school in the authority will be published in October 2020 and include schools that were maintained schools on 1 September 2020. Academies receive the premium directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Authorities should not pay the premium to academies that converted before 1 September 2020, as they will receive their funding directly from ESFA.
Schools that convert to academies on or after 1 September 2020 up to and including 1 April 2021 will be paid the April to August 2021 element of the academic year allocation direct from ESFA on 1 May 2021.
The premium must be made available by the authority to the school irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. The premium is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual school’s budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.
4. Terms on which the premium is allocated to schools
Local authorities must pass the premium to maintained schools within one month of receipt and must require that maintained schools comply with the terms set out below.
The premium must be spent by schools on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE, physical activity and sport for the benefit of all primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles. This applies also to any carry over funding from the academic year 2019 to 2020.
Any unspent funding at 31 July 2021 can be carried forward into the 2021 to 2022 academic year. This applies to funding from the 2020 to 2021 academic year, and also to any carry over funding from the academic year 2019 to 2020. All funding carried forward into the 2021 to 2022 academic year must be spent by 31 July 2022.
The Secretary of State does not consider the following expenditure as falling within the scope of additional or sustainable improvement:
- employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements - these should come out of schools’ core staffing budgets
- teaching the minimum requirements of the national curriculum PE programmes of study - including those specified for swimming
- fund capital expenditure
Maintained schools, including those that convert to academies, must publish information about their use of the premium on their website by the end of the summer term or 31 July at the latest. Schools must publish:
- the amount of premium received
- a full breakdown of how it has been spent (or will be spent)
- what impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment
- how the improvements will be sustainable in the future
- the percentage of pupils within their year 6 cohort for academic year 2020 to 2021 that can do each of the following:
- swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
- use a range of strokes effectively (for example front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke)
- perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations
If selected, schools must also take part in a sampling review to scrutinise their compliance with these terms.
5. Certification
Local authorities will be required to certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools and, where funding has been spent, that it has been spent in line with the terms set out above.
6. Variation
The basis for allocation of the premium may be varied by the Secretary of State from those set out in clause 3 above, if requested by the authority or at the discretion of the Secretary of State.
7. Other terms
If the authority or a school fails to comply with the terms set out in the paragraphs above, the Secretary of State may require the repayment of the whole or any part of the premium paid to the authority or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the premium.
This will be notified in writing to the authority or school, and any such sum that has been notified shall immediately become payable by the authority to the Secretary of State or be withheld from subsequent instalments.
8. Overpayments
Any overpayment of the premium shall be immediately repaid by the authority to the Secretary of State.
9. Further information
The books and other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts (for the purposes of this grant “recipient” is the authority or school) must be made available for inspection by the Secretary of State and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The Comptroller and Auditor General may, under section 6 of the National Audit Act 1983, carry out examinations into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the recipient has used its resources in discharging its grant-aided activities.
The authority or school must provide such further information as may be required by the Secretary of State for the purpose of determining whether, or to what extent, it has complied with the terms set out in this document. Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State requiring repayment of the whole or any part of the premium paid to the authority or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the premium.