Guidance

Pupil premium 2024 to 2025: technical note

Updated 12 December 2024

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 2024 to 2025.

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

Where this note refers to ‘mainstream and special schools’ it refers to local authority maintained schools, academies, free schools, hospital schools and non-maintained special schools.

2. Eligible schools

The following types of school are allocated PP grant 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 year groups reception to year 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 infant, primary, middle, junior, secondary and all-through academies serving pupils in year groups reception to year  11
• academies and non-maintained special schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities
• alternative provision (AP) academies, for children who do not go to a mainstream school

Local authorities also receive PP grant for any pupils eligible for pupil premium in any independent setting where the authority pays full tuition fees. It is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school.

3. Funding criteria

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

For mainstream and special schools, the PP grant for financial year 2024 to2025 will include pupils recorded in the October 2023 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since (and including) January 2018, as well as those first recorded as eligible in October 2023.

For PRUs and AP academies, the PP grant for financial year 2024 to 2025 will include pupils recorded in the January 2024 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since (and including) May 2018, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2024.

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

3.2 Previously looked-after children (PLAC)

For mainstream and special schools, the PP grant for financial year 2024 to 2025 will include children recorded in the October 2023 school census who were looked after by a local authority or other state care immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority or other state care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order). This includes children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales.

For PRUs and AP academies, PP grant for financial year 2024 to 2025 will include PLAC recorded in the January 2024 school census.

3.3 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. It is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school. If LAC PP funding is retained by the local authority it must still be spent to improve the attainment of eligible pupils and in accordance with the menu of approaches (see section 3.1 of the pupil premium conditions of grant for further detail).

In June 2024, an initial allocation will be calculated using the number of children looked after for at least one day, as recorded in the March 2023 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2022.

A final allocation in December 2024 will use the number of children looked after for at least one day during the year ending March 2024, as recorded in the March 2024 children looked-after data return (SSDA903) and aged 4 to 15 on 31 August 2023.

3.4 Service children

Pupils in state-funded schools in England attract the service pupil premium grant (SPP) if they meet the following 2 criteria:

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

They would also be eligible if:

• 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 2024 to 2025 will include pupils recorded in the October 2023 school census 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 October 2023 school census.

For PRUs and AP academies, the SPP for financial year 2024 to 2025 will include pupils recorded in the January 2024 school census who have been recorded as a service child at any point since the January 2019 census, as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time in the January 2024 school census.

4. Rates for eligible pupils

The PP grant per pupil rates for financial year 2024 to 2025 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	£1,480
Pupils in years 7 to 11 recorded as FSM Ever 6	£1,050
Looked-after children (LAC)	£2,570
Previously looked-after children (PLAC)	£2,570
Service children	SPP per pupil rate
Eligible service children in year groups reception to year 11	£340

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 2023 school census for mainstream and special schools, and in the January 2024 school census for PRUs and AP academies. These pupils will attract the same amount of funding as if they were in the year-group that corresponds to their age.

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, 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 2023 school census for mainstream and special schools, and on the January 2024 school census for PRUs.

Where a pupil is recorded as both 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 2024 may have an impact on some schools’ PP grant allocations as those recorded as both LAC and FSM Ever 6 will be excluded from the school’s 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 2024 shall have grant allocated to them as if they were not federated.

Initial allocations will be published in May 2024 for all schools that complete the October 2023 census. Allocations will be confirmed in June 2024, before the first payment. The June allocations will include PRUs and AP academies that complete the January 2024 census.

6. Payment schedule

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

• 28 June 2024
• 30 September 2024
• 31 December 2024
• 31 March 2025

See section 7 for funding arrangements for maintained schools that are converting to academies during the financial year beginning 1 April 2024.

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

• 8 July 2024 - for academies open by, and on, 1 April 2024
• 8 October 2024 - for academies open at 1 April 2024
• 9 January 2025 - for academies open at 1 September 2024
• 8 April 2025 - for academies open at 1 January 2025

Academies and free schools that open during the financial year 2024 to 2025 and do not have a predecessor school will be paid their allocation in full in April 2025, once their census data is available.

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

• 19 August 2024 - for NMSS open before 1 April 2024
• 18 October 2024 - for NMSS open at 1 April 2024
• 17 January 2025 - for NMSS open at 1 September 2024
• 18 April 2025 - for NMSS open at 1 January 2025

7. Maintained schools converting to academies

Where a school has converted to an academy by 1 April 2024, 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 2024	5 twelfths of its annual allocation
After 1 September 2024 and on or by 1 January 2025	9 twelfths of its annual allocation
After 1 January 2025	Its full 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 2023, ESFA will use the October 2024 school census to calculate PP grant allocations.

For new mainstream and special schools that open after the October 2024 census, ESFA will use data from the January 2025 school census.

ESFA will also use the January 2025 school census for PRUs and AP academies that open after the January 2024 school census. In each case, the allocation will be pro-rated to the proportion of the 2024 to 2025 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 2024, 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 2025. It will be based on the increase in eligible pupils between the October 2023 and the October 2024 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 2024 school level annual school census (SLASC).

10. Independent 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 in any independent setting where 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 2024 to 2025 will include pupils recorded in the January 2024 alternative provision census. For FSM Ever 6 pupils, this includes those who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since May 2018, as well as those first recorded as eligible in January 2024.