Guidance

PE and sport premium: conditions of grant 2021 to 2022 (maintained schools)

Updated 28 April 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on

Find the latest information about PE and sport premium in our Local authorities: pre-16 schools funding collection.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The primary PE and sport premium 2021 to 2022 (“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 sets the following terms to the premium payable for the academic year 2021 to 2022. The authority is required to distribute the premium to maintained schools only (including pupil referral units and hospital schools but excluding maintained nursery schools).

Financial year 2021 to 2022 academic year Payment date
2021 to 2022 September 2021 to March 2022 29 October 2021
2022 to 2023 April 2022 to August 2022 29 April 2022

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 2021 to 2022 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 2021 to 2022 are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January 2021 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

In the case of a school which has opened or is due to open during the 2021 to 2022 academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn 2021 school census. Allocations for such schools will be paid by 28 February 2022 (first instalment) and on 29 April 2022 (second instalment).

The allocations for each school in the authority will be published in October 2021 and include schools that were maintained schools on 1 September 2021. Proprietors of academies receive the premium directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Authorities should not pay the premium to proprietors of academies that converted before 1 September 2021, as they will receive their funding directly from ESFA.

Schools that convert to academies on or after 1 September 2021 up to and including 1 April 2022 will be paid the April to August 2022 element of the academic year allocation direct from ESFA on 3 May 2022.

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 1 month of receipt and must require that maintained schools comply with the terms set out below.

The premium must be spent in full by the end of the 2021 to 2022 academic year. This includes any carried forward under-spent funding that has resulted from the relaxations to the ring-fencing arrangements of the PE and sport premium because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Schools must use the funding to make 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.

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 your existing PE curriculum
  • 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
  • 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 2021 to 2022 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 academy or free school proprietor) must be made available for inspection by the Secretary of State and by 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.