Guidance

Primary PE and sport premium: conditions of grant for the academic year 2024 to 2025

Published 17 October 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

1.1   Legislation

The primary PE and sport premium (“the premium”) grant will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education (“the Secretary of State”) as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002 (“EA 2002”). In accordance with section 16 of the EA 2002, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable for the academic year 2024 to 2025.

1.2    Purpose

The purpose of the PE and sport premium grant is for schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

This means schools must use the PE and sport premium to:

• build capacity and capability within the school and ensure that improvements to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity provision made now are sustainable and will benefit pupils joining the school in future years; and
• develop or add to the PE, sport and physical activity that the school provides

Any use of the PE and sport premium must be in accordance with the terms outlined in this document.

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.

1.3    Period 

These conditions of grant cover the academic year 2024 to 2025.

2. Eligibility

2.1   Types of settings

The following settings are eligible to receive funding provided they meet the criteria as set out at 2.2:

Maintained schools – this includes

• mainstream schools
• special schools
• pupil referral units and hospital schools

Academies – this includes

• mainstream academies and free schools
• alternative provision academies

Non-maintained special schools (NMSS)

3. Payments

3.1    Calculation

An allocation for this grant has been calculated using a standardised methodology.

Allocations for the academic year 2024 to 2025 are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January 2024 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.

3.2   Payment timetable       

	Local authorities and their maintained schools	Academies	NMSS
Payment 1 (7 12ths)	31 October 2024	8 November 2024	18 December 2024
New schools	28 February 2025	10 March 2025	17 April 2025
Payment 2 (5 12ths)	30 April 2025	9 May 2025	17 April 2025

3.3   School closures, openings and academy conversions

In the case of a mainstream or special school which has opened or is due to open during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn 2024 school census. This will also apply to NMSS.

Allocations for such mainstream or special schools will be paid in February 2025 (first instalment) and in April 2025 (second instalment), and for NMSS the full payment will be made in April 2025.

The allocations for each school in the authority will be published in October 2024 and include schools that were maintained schools on 1 September 2024. 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 2024, as they will receive their funding directly from ESFA.

Schools that convert to academies on or after 1 September 2024 up to and including 1 April 2025 will be paid the April to August 2024 element of the academic year allocation in May 2025.

In the case of an academy which has opened or is due to open during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn 2024 school census. Allocations for such schools will be paid in March 2025 (first instalment) and in May 2025 (second instalment).

Proprietors of academies receive the premium directly from the ESFA. Schools that convert to academies on or after 1 September 2024 up to and including 1 April 2025 will be paid the April to August 2024 element of the academic year allocation direct in May 2025.

If a setting closes during the financial year, the local authority (for maintained schools) or ESFA (for academies) should allocate the grant for the proportion of the financial year for which the setting is open.

This grant is allocated on a school level basis. The department will not seek to clawback any grant funding from a local authority if a school converts to academy status after the payment is made. The grant allocation is intended for the school, and the local authority shall pass on the entire grant funding to the school immediately upon receipt from the department. In addition, any unspent grant funding should remain with the school after it converts.

In respect to calculating a school’s final accounts, any pro-rated amount up to the point of conversion is included in the balance calculation for the school. The remaining amount which relates for the period after the school has converted should be accounted for by the academy.

3.4   Additional local authority duty

Local authorities will be required to certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools or, where funding has been spent centrally, that it has been spent in line with these conditions of grant. DfE will issue a certification form in spring 2025.

Local authorities must pass funding on to their maintained schools immediately line with their scheme for financing schools. The funding 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 the school’s 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. Assurance

4.1   Eligible spend

Funding must only be spent on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

Schools must spend the PE and sport premium funding within the academic year it has been allocated for and funding should not be allocated only to benefit a certain year group. Schools cannot roll-over any unused funding into the following academic year.

The Secretary of State does not consider the following expenditure as falling within the scope of additional or sustainable improvement:

• capital expenditure (except for goods within the de minimis value for purchases set by the school)
• employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements. This should be funded from a school’s core staffing budgets
• staff salaries, for example using your premium funding allocation to employ someone whose role is to specifically administer the PE and sport premium, or to use your entire funding allocation to employ someone that is responsible for arranging and running PE, sport or activity sessions. This would not be viewed as sustainable
• to teach the existing PE curriculum (or, in the case of academies, to teach the existing PE curriculum)– apart from top-up swimming lessons after pupils’ completion of core lessons. Teaching of the curriculum should be funded through a school’s core funding.
• the purchase of services that will be delivered or/used in following academic years (this includes the payment of invoices/subscriptions in advance)
• the purchase of staff or pupil PE kit

4.2   Digital reporting form

For reporting from July 2025 all schools must complete the digital form outlining how the school has used its PE and sport premium and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding. The information that will need to be entered onto the form includes:

• figures on the overall spend
• what the funding has been spent on
• whether there is any unspent funding
• swimming and water safety attainment

4.3   Publishing a report

A school must publish on its website a report detailing how it has spent its PE and sport premium funding allocation by 31 July 2025. In addition, schools must complete the digital form outlining how the school has used its PE and sport premium funding allocation If a school chooses to download a copy of its digital form return and use this as its published report, it must ensure that the form is converted to HTML format to meet accessibility requirements. 

In the case of a multi-academy trust (MAT) which may include several primary schools, and the PE and sport premium funding may be pooled, this does not remove the requirement for each individual school to publish details of how it has spent its PE and sport premium funding allocation. The MAT cannot publish a single document to cover all schools, nor will the digital tool allow for a MAT to complete one form for all schools.

The published report must include:

• the amount of PE and sport premium funding received
• a full breakdown of how it has been spent
• the impact seen by the school on pupils’ participation and attainment in PE and sport
• how this improvement will be sustained

The report must also contain details on the percentage of pupils in year 6 who have met the national curriculum requirement to:

• 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

4.4   Capital expenditure

PE and sport premium funding cannot be spent on capital expenditure, this funding can only be used for revenue expenditure. If you are unsure whether a particular cost can be classified as revenue expenditure, seek professional advice. The department cannot provide individual advice on the classification of expenditure.

Capital expenditure for the purposes of this grant funding is defined as:

‘The purchase of an asset (tangible or intangible), or expenditure which adds to/enhances and not merely maintains the value of an existing asset.’

If the spending would trigger asset recognition for the school/local authority, under your own local accounting policy, then the spending would not be eligible to be funded through this grant. However, occasions where the grant funds are used to maintain existing assets, a revenue cost, are allowable; for example re-painting lines on the playground is allowable as the asset (the playground) should already be recognised as an asset, and this type of spending is a revenue maintenance cost.

An explanation of capital expenditure is included in the associated guidance.

4.5 Carry forward funding

Funds must not be carried forward past 31 July 2025.

5. Further information

The financial accounts and any other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts shall be open to 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.

Local authorities, schools and settings must provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether they have complied with these conditions. Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State requiring the recovery of the whole or any part of the premium paid to the local authority or setting, or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the premium.

6. Variation

The basis for allocation of this grant may be varied by the Secretary of State from that set out above, if so requested by the local authority, school or setting, or at the discretion of the Secretary of State.

7. Recovery of funding

If a local authority, school or proprietor of an academy fails to comply with the terms and conditions set out in this document, the Secretary of State may recover some, or all the PE and sport premium grant that has been allocated. Schools/local authorities will be notified in writing if a recovery was to be made.

Recoveries will be made by offsetting the amount against subsequent payments due to the local authority, school or proprietor from the department.

The recipient must notify the department immediately through the Customer Help Portal  if it becomes aware of any instance of error, suspected fraud or financial irregularity in the use of the funds.

8. Overpayments

If a local authority, school or setting identifies that it has been overpaid, it must contact the department to arrange recovery of the excess. Where the department identifies an overpayment, it may seek to recover the excess. The local authority or school will be notified of this in writing if this was going to happen.

9. Enquiries

For queries relating to these terms and conditions please contact PE.PREMIUM@education.gov.uk