Guidance

Pupil premium 2022 to 2023: technical note

Updated 23 March 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 4 September 2024

Find the latest information on pupil premium in our Local authorities: pre-16 schools funding collection.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This technical note sets out details of how allocations of pupil premium grant (PPG) have been calculated for 2022 to 2023.

It applies to all eligible schools, as outlined in section 2.

Where this note refers to ‘mainstream and special schools’ it is also referring to mainstream and special academies.

2. Eligible schools

The following types of school are allocated PPG funding based on the number of eligible pupils who attend.

2.1 Local-authority-maintained schools

This includes:

• mainstream infant, primary, middle, junior, secondary, and all-through schools serving pupils in reception to year group 11

• schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities and general hospital schools

• pupil referral units (PRUs), for children who do not go to a mainstream school

2.2 Academies, free schools, and non-maintained special schools

This includes:

• mainstream academies serving pupils in reception to year group 11

• academies for children with special educational needs or disabilities

• alternative provision (AP) academies, for children who do not go to a mainstream school

• non-maintained special schools

Pupil premium funding is also provided to local authorities for eligible pupils in independent special schools, where the local authority pays full tuition fees – see section 10 for further details.

3. Pupil eligibility

3.1 ‘Ever 6’ free school meals children

For mainstream and special schools, the pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include pupils recorded in the October 2021 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since January 2016, as well as those first recorded as eligible in October 2021.

For PRUs and AP academies, the pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include pupils recorded in the January 2022 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since May 2016, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2022.

For the purposes of this note, these pupils are collectively referred to as ‘FSM Ever 6’.

3.2 Children of families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) who are eligible for free school meals

For 2022 to 2023, pupil premium funding will be allocated in respect of children of families with NRPF who are eligible for free school meals, and for whom successful claims have been submitted to the ESFA. Details on the claims criteria for these pupils is being published separately.

For the purposes of this note, these pupils are collectively referred to as ‘NRPF pupils’.

3.3 Looked-after children (LAC)

Looked-after children (LAC) are defined in the Children Act 1989 as one who is in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English local authority.

In June 2022, a provisional allocation will be calculated using the number of children looked after for at least one day, as recorded in the March 2021 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2020.

A final allocation in December 2022 will use the number of children looked after for at least one day during the year ending March 2022, as recorded in the March 2022 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2021.

3.4 Previously looked-after children (PLAC)

For mainstream and special schools, the pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include children recorded in the October 2021 school census who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order).

For PRUs and AP academies, the pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include PLAC recorded in the January 2022 school census.

3.5 Service children

A school’s PPG will include an allocation of Service Pupil Premium (SPP) based on the number of pupils for whom any of the following apply:

• one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service)

• one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme

• they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on a school census since 2016

For mainstream and special schools, the SPP for 2022 to 2023 will include pupils recorded in the October 2021 school census who have been recorded as a service child at any point since the January 2016 census, as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time in the October 2021 school census.

For PRUs and AP academies, the service premium for 2022 to 2023 will include these pupils, as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time in the January 2022 school census.

4. Rates for eligible pupils

The PPG per pupil rate for 2022 to 2023 is set out below.

Pupils who are recorded as LAC/PLAC and FSM Ever 6 will attract the LAC/PLAC per pupil amount only. Eligible service children will attract the SPP rate on top of any other PPG eligibility rate.

Disadvantaged pupils	PPG per pupil rate
Pupils in year groups reception to year 6 recorded as FSM Ever 6, plus NRPF pupils in these year groups who are eligible for FSM	£1,385
Pupils in years 7 to 11 recorded as FSM Ever 6, plus NRPF pupils in these year groups who are eligible for FSM	£985
Looked-after children (LAC)	£2,410
Previously looked-after children (PLAC)	£2,410

Service children	SPP per pupil rate
Eligible service children in year groups reception to year 11	£320

Where national curriculum year groups do not apply to a pupil, the pupil will attract PPG if aged 4 to 15 as recorded in the October 2021 school census for mainstream and special schools, and in the January 2022 school census for PRUs and AP academies.

5. Allocations

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will allocate PPG to academies directly. This allocation will be based on FSM Ever 6 pupils (plus NRPF pupils), PLAC and eligible service children.

The ESFA will allocate PPG to local authorities for each school they maintain. Local authorities must allocate these amounts (minus the portion of the funding based on LAC eligibility) without delay for each FTE pupil on the October 2021 school census for mainstream and special schools, and on the January 2022 school census for PRUs.

Where a pupil is recorded as LAC and FSM Ever 6, the pupil is included only in the LAC count for the local authority allocation. This means the school’s PPG allocation will not include a payment for that pupil. As a result, the update in December 2022 may have an impact on some schools’ PPG allocations.

PPG will be allocated on the basis of sole and dual main registrations only. Any transfer of funds between a dual main school and a dual subsidiary school is a matter for the 2 schools.

Schools federated, or to be federated, under the provisions of section 24 of the Education Act 2002, during the financial year beginning 1 April 2022 shall have grant allocated to them as if they were not federated.

We will publish initial allocations in March 2022 for all schools that complete the October 2021 census. Allocations will be confirmed in June 2022, before the first payment. The June allocations will include PRUs and AP academies, that complete the January 2022 census.

Allocations will include NRPF pupils once the data from schools’ claims for those pupils has been validated.

6. Payment schedule

We will pay PPG to local authorities in quarterly instalments by:

• 30 June 2022
• 30 September 2022
• 30 December 2022
• 31 March 2023

See section 7 for funding arrangements for maintained schools that are converting to academies during the financial year beginning 1 April 2022.

We will pay PPG to academies (including free schools) in quarterly instalments by:

• 08 July 2022 - for academies open by, and on, 1 April 2022
• 10 October 2022 - for academies open at 1 April 2022
• 10 January 2023 - for academies open at 1 September 2022
• 12 April 2023 - for academies open at 1 January 2023

Academies and free schools that open during the financial year and do not have a predecessor school will be paid their allocation in full in April 2023, once their census data is available.

7. Maintained schools converting to academies

Schools that are academies on 1 April 2022 will receive their PPG directly from ESFA.

Local authorities should pay PPG to schools due to convert to academy status as follows:

Date of conversion to academy	Proportion of PPG paid by local authority
On or by 1 September 2022	Five twelfths of their annual allocation
After 1 September 2022 and on or by 1 January 2023	Nine twelfths of their annual allocation
After 1 January 2023	Their full allocation

We will adjust a local authority’s PPG allocation to reflect these conversions and pay the remaining allocation directly to the academy.

8. New schools, schools not fully open and schools that close

For new mainstream and special schools that opened after October 2021, we will use the October 2022 school census to calculate PPG allocations.

For new mainstream and special schools that open after the October 2022 census, we will use data from the January 2023 school census.

We will also use the January 2023 school census for PRUs and AP academies that open after the January 2022 school census.

In each case, the allocation will be prorated to the proportion of the 2022 to 2023 financial year that the school is open.

A revised allocation will be made to mainstream and special schools that are not fully open and are still growing their year groups since opening. This means that at the start of the autumn term 2022, if the school has been open for fewer years than the number of year groups in the school, the school’s allocation will be revised in March 2023. It will be based on the increase in eligible pupils between the October 2021 and the October 2022 school census. The increase will be prorated by seven twelfths to reflect that the additional year groups have been in place for seven months of the financial year.

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

Where a school receives pupils from schools that close or as a result of school merger, the local authority (for maintained schools) or the ESFA (for academies) should allocate the same grant that it would have allocated to the schools that closed or merged for the remainder of the financial year.

Local authorities should agree the amount a school receives from schools that close.

9. General hospital schools

PPG for general hospital schools will be based on the number of FTE pupils recorded as FSM eligible in the January 2022 school level annual school census (SLASC).

10. Independent special schools

For PPG based on FSM Ever 6, eligible service children and PLAC, the ESFA will allocate funding to each local authority for eligible pupils for whom the authority pays full tuition fees.

This does not include non-maintained special schools, who will receive PPG direct from the ESFA.

The pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include pupils recorded in the January 2022 alternative provision census. For FSM Ever 6 pupils, this includes those who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since May 2016, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2022.