Guidance

Pupil premium 2023-24: technical note

Updated 28 March 2024

This guidance was withdrawn on 4 September 2024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 (PP) grant have been calculated for the financial year 2023 -24.

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 PP grant 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

PP grant is also provided to local authorities for eligible pupils in independent special schools, where the local authority pays full tuition fees – see section 10.

3. Pupil eligibility

3.1 ‘Ever 6’ free school meals (FSM) children

For mainstream and special schools, the PP grant for financial year 2023-24 will include pupils recorded in the October 2022 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since (and including) January 2017, as well as those first recorded as eligible in October 2022.

For PRUs and AP academies, the PP grant for financial year 2023-24 will include pupils recorded in the January 2023 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since (and including) May 2017, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2023.

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

From 24 March 2022, FSM eligibility has been permanently extended to children of families with NRPF, subject to specified income thresholds. As these pupils should now be recorded as such in the school census, PP grant for these pupils will automatically be calculated in the same way as for other FSM eligible pupils. Unlike in previous years, there will therefore not be a separate PP grant claims process for these pupils for financial year 2023-24.

3.3 Previously looked-after children (PLAC)

For mainstream and special schools, the PP grant for financial year 2023-24 will include children recorded in the October 2022 school census who were looked after by a local authority or other state care 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, PP grant for financial year 2023 -24 will include PLAC recorded in the January 2023 school census.

For the first time in financial year 2023-24, this includes pupils adopted from state care from outside England and Wales.

3.4 Looked-after children (LAC)

PP grant is allocated to local authorities based on the number of LAC supported by the authority. LAC are defined in the Children Act 1989 as those who are in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English local authority.

In June 2023, a provisional allocation will be calculated using the number of children looked after for at least one day, as recorded in the March 2022 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2021.

A final allocation in December 2023 will use the number of children looked after for at least one day during the year ending March 2023, as recorded in the March 2023 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2022.

3.5 Service children

A school’s PP grant 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). This includes pupils with a parent who is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England

• registered as a ‘service child’ on any school census in the past 6 years

• 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

For mainstream and special schools, the SPP for financial year 2023-24 will include pupils recorded in the October 2022 school census who have been recorded as a service child at any point since the January 2017 census, as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time in the October 2022 school census.

For PRUs and AP academies, the SPP for financial year 2023-24 will include pupils who have been recorded as a service child at any point since the January 2018 census, as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time in the January 2023 school census.

4. Rates for eligible pupils

The PP grant per pupil rates for financial year 2023-24 are 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 in addition to any other PP grant eligibility rate.

Disadvantaged pupils	PP grant per pupil rate
Pupils in year groups reception to year 6 recorded as FSM Ever 6, including eligible NRPF pupils	£1,455
Pupils in years 7 to 11 recorded as FSM Ever 6, including eligible NRPF pupils	£1,035
Looked-after children (LAC)	£2,530
Previously looked-after children (PLAC)	£2,530

Service children	SPP per pupil rate
Eligible service children in year groups reception to year 11	£335

Where national curriculum year groups do not apply to a pupil, the pupil will attract PP grant if aged 4 to 15 as recorded in the October 2022 school census for mainstream and special schools, and in the January 2023 school census for PRUs and AP academies.

5. Allocations

Updated allocations will be published shortly before each instalment is paid - see section 6 for the payment schedule.

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

ESFA will allocate PP grant 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 full time equivalent (FTE) pupil on the October 2022 school census for mainstream and special schools, and on the January 2023 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 PP grant allocation will not include a payment for that pupil. As a result, the update in December 2023 may have an impact on some schools’ PP grant allocations as those recorded as LAC and FSM Ever 6 will be excluded from the schools PP grant allocation.

PP grant 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 2023 shall have grant allocated to them as if they were not federated.

Initial allocations will be published in March 2023 for all schools that complete the October 2022 census. Allocations will be confirmed in June 2023, before the first payment. The June allocations will include PRUs and AP academies, that complete the January 2023 census.

6. Payment schedule

ESFA will pay PP grant to local authorities in quarterly instalments as follows:

• 30 June 2023
• 29 September 2023
• 29 December 2023
• 28 March 2024

See section 7 for funding arrangements for maintained schools that are converting to academies during the financial year beginning 1 April 2023.

ESFA will pay PP grant to academies (including free schools) in quarterly instalments as follows:

• 10 July 2023 - for academies open by, and on, 1 April 2023
• 9 October 2023 - for academies open at 1 April 2023
• 8 January 2024 - for academies open at 1 September 2023
• 9 April 2024 - for academies open at 1 January 2024

Academies and free schools that open during the financial year 2023-24 and do not have a predecessor school will be paid their allocation in full in April 2024, once their census data is available.

ESFA will pay PP grant to NMSS in quarterly instalments as follows:

• August 2023 - for NMSS open before 1 April 2023
• October 2023 - for NMSS open at 1 April 2023
• January 2024 - for NMSS open at 1 September 2023
• April 2024 - for NMSS open at 1 January 2024

7. Maintained schools converting to academies

Where a school has converted to an academy by 1 April 2023, the academy will receive its PP grant directly from ESFA.

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

Date of conversion to academy	Proportion of PP grant paid by local authority
On or by 1 September 2023	5 twelfths of its annual allocation
After 1 September 2023 and on or by 1 January 2024	9 twelfths of its annual allocation
After 1 January 2024	All of the allocation

A local authority’s PP grant allocation will be adjusted to reflect these conversions and the remaining allocation will be paid 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 2022, ESFA will use the October 2023 school census to calculate PP grant allocations.

For new mainstream and special schools that open after the October 2023 census, ESFA will use data from the January 2024 school census.

ESFA will also use the January 2024 school census for PRUs and AP academies that open after the January 2023 school census. In each case, the allocation will be pro-rated to the proportion of the 2023-24 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 2023, 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 2024. It will be based on the increase in eligible pupils between the October 2022 and the October 2023 school census. The increase will be pro-rated by 7 twelfths to reflect that the additional year groups have been in place for 7 months of the financial year.

If a school closes during the financial year, the local authority (for maintained schools) or ESFA (for academies) should allocate PP grant 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 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

PP grant for general hospital schools will be based on the number of FTE pupils recorded as FSM eligible in the January 2023 school level annual school census (SLASC).

10. Independent special schools

For PP grant based on FSM Ever 6, eligible service children and PLAC, 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 PP grant direct from ESFA.

The PP grant for financial year 2023-24 will include pupils recorded in the January 2023 alternative provision census. For FSM Ever 6 pupils, this includes those who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since May 2017, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2023.