Guidance

Pupil premium: conditions of grant for the 2025 to 2026 financial year

Updated 27 March 2025

Applies to England

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025. All activity has moved to the Department for Education (DfE). You should continue to follow this guidance.

1. Introduction

1.1 Legislation

The pupil premium (PP) grant will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable.

1.2 Purpose

PP grant provides funding for the purpose of improving the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. Schools must use their PP grant to accelerate disadvantaged pupils’ progress, in order to raise their attainment. This will contribute to closing the national attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

Further information on the purpose of the PP grant can be found in the Department for Education (DfE) guidance for school leaders.

The portion of PP grant for pupils from service families is referred to as service pupil premium (SPP). Pupils eligible for SPP are not necessarily financially disadvantaged and the funding is for schools to provide mainly pastoral support. It is paid as part of PP grant for schools’ convenience.

There is additional information on SPP in the guidance for school leaders and the DfE’s SPP guidance.

1.3 Accompanying technical note

The PP technical note, to accompany these conditions, details the grant rates, detailed eligibility criteria for the financial year 2025 to 2026 and funding formula calculations.

1.4 Period

These conditions of grant cover the financial year 2025 to 2026.

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:

Local authorities

This includes local authority-maintained:

• mainstream schools
• special schools
• pupil referral units (PRUs) and hospital schools

This does not include sixth-form provisions in these settings.

Academies

This includes:

• mainstream academies and free schools
• alternative provision (AP) academies
• studio schools
• university technical colleges
• city technology colleges

This does not include sixth-form provisions in these settings.

Non-maintained special schools (NMSS)

Further education and sixth form settings

Some further education and sixth-form colleges full-time enrol 14 to 16 year old pupils who may be eligible for pupil premium, in accordance with the guidance on 14 to 16 full-time enrolment in colleges.

For the purposes of these conditions of grant, references to how schools should use the funding (as set out in section 4) and provide assurance for its use (section 5) also apply to these settings.

2.2 Criteria

There are different funding criteria for PP and SPP.

2.2.1 Pupil premium eligibility criteria

PP grant is allocated directly to academies and NMSS, and to local authorities, who must distribute to each school they maintain. Allocations are based on the number of pupils in year groups reception to year 11, who are:

• recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM) or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (FSM Ever 6)

• previously looked-after children (PLAC): pupils 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

PP grant is also allocated to local authorities based on the number of:

• looked-after children (LAC): pupils who are in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English authority, including those who attend academies and NMSS. 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 looked-after children and in accordance with the menu of approaches (see section 4.1 for further detail)

The portion of PP grant funding for LAC and PLAC pupils is referred to as ‘pupil premium plus’ (PP+).

Local authorities also receive PP grant for pupils that meet any pupil premium eligibility criteria who are educated in an independent setting where the authority pays full tuition fees. As with LAC PP, it is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school and where it is not passed on, the local authority must spend it to improve the attainment of these pupils, and in accordance with the menu of approaches.

2.2.2 Service pupil premium (SSP) eligibility criteria

SPP grant is allocated directly to academies and NMSS, and allocated to local authorities who must distribute to each school they maintain, based on the number of pupils who meet any of the following 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) or is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England – and they have been registered as a ‘service child’ in the most recent autumn DfE school census
• they do not currently have ‘service child’ status but they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on any DfE 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

3. Payments

3.1 Calculation

DfE will publish initial allocations in March 2025 for all schools that complete the October 2024 census.

We will confirm allocations in June 2025, before the first payment. The June allocations will include PRUs and AP academies that complete the January 2025 census. Please see the PP technical note for further details on how allocations are calculated.

3.2 Payment timetable

DfE will pay  PP  grant to settings in quarterly instalments as follows:

Payment	Local authorities and their maintained schools	Academies	NMSS
Payment 1	30 June 2025	8 July 2025 - for academies open by, and on, 1 April 2025	18 August 2025 - for NMSS open before 1 April 2025
Payment 2	30 September 2025	8 October 2026 - for academies open at 1 April 2025	17 October 2025 - for NMSS open at 1 April 2025
Payment 3	31 December 2025	9 January 2026 - for academies open at 1 September 2025	16 January 2026 - for NMSS open at 1 September 2025
Payment 4	31 March 2026	10 April 2026 - for academies open at 1 January 2026	17 April 2026 - for NMSS open at 1 January 2026

3.3 School closures, openings and academy conversions

Please see the PP technical note, section 6 for this information.

3.4 Additional local authority duty

Local authorities must make the grant available to their schools irrespective of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. PP grant is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual school’s budget. PP grant is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.

Local authorities should pay PP grant to schools due to convert to academy status as per the proportions set out in the PP technical note.

If a maintained school closes during the financial year, the local authority should allocate PP grant for the proportion of the financial year the school is open. See further details in the PP technical note.

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 2026. Local authorities must pass funding on to their maintained schools in a timely manner in line with their scheme for financing schools.

4. Permitted use of funding

PP grant must be spent to achieve the purposes set out in section 1.2 of these conditions of grant.

The grant can be spent:

• for the benefit of eligible pupils registered at settings that meet the funding criteria
• for the benefit of pupils who meet the funding criteria and are registered at other state funded schools - for example, when hosting summer schools which welcome pupils from other schools
• on community services whose provision furthers the benefit of eligible pupils at the setting. For example, where virtual school heads (responsible for LAC PP grant) deem it beneficial to do so, such as art therapy outside of the classroom, or training of local authority staff to raise awareness of LAC

Settings do not have to spend PP so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. PP grant can be used to support other pupils with identified needs, such as those who have or have had a social worker, or who act as a carer. It can also be used for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils.

Multi-academy trusts (MATs) may pool resources for use of pupil premium grant across multiple academies. MATs must ensure that any plan is flexible enough to accommodate the specific needs of each academy’s disadvantaged pupil cohort and the plan must be in addition to the pupil premium strategy statement for each academy – see section 5.2.1 for further information.

4.1 The ‘menu of approaches’

To ensure PP grant is focused on effective approaches to raising the educational outcomes of eligible pupils, settings (including local authority virtual schools) must spend their PP grant (excluding SPP) on evidence-informed activities in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by DfE. The menu of approaches is in the using pupil premium guidance.

When considering the balance of spending within the 3-tiered model set out in the Education Endowment Foundation’s guide to the pupil premium, schools should bear in mind that the EEF recommends that approaches which support and promote high-quality teaching in schools should be a top priority for PP spending. However, the exact balance of spending between categories will vary depending on the specific needs of pupils and the relative size of the school’s PP cohort.

Schools are not required to allocate PP grant to every approach on the menu, but any activity funded by PP grant must fall under one of the approaches listed.

4.2 Looked-after children (LAC)

For LAC, it is the responsibility of the designated virtual school head (VSH) in the local authority that looks after the child, in consultation with the child’s school, to ensure that PP grant is used on evidence-informed interventions to support the child’s educational needs. The funding should be used on evidence-informed interventions that are clearly linked to robust personal education plans and in line with the menu of approaches.

The VSH should ensure there are arrangements in place to discuss how the child will benefit from the LAC PP grant with the designated teacher or another member of staff in the child’s education setting who best understands their needs.

Processes for local authorities allocating funds to a child’s education setting should be as simple as possible to avoid delay.

The local authority can pool any amount of LAC PP grant to fund activities that will benefit a group, or all, of the authority’s LAC. Any PP grant held centrally must not be used to fund services that the local authority is responsible for funding, such as support for foster carers, school uniforms or transport to get the child to school.

See the using pupil premium guidance for further information.

4.3 Previously looked-after children (PLAC)

For PLAC, it is the responsibility of the setting to ensure that the PP grant is used on evidence-informed interventions, in line with the menu of approaches, to support the specific educational needs of PLAC attending the school. See the using pupil premium guidance for further information.

4.4 Independent settings

Local authorities may allocate PP grant to independent settings or spend the funding themselves on additional educational support to raise the attainment of the eligible pupils, in line with the menu of approaches. Local authorities must consult the settings about how to use PP grant to support eligible pupils.

4.5 Service pupil premium (SPP)

Unlike the rest of PP, schools are not required to spend SPP in line with the menu of approaches. The primary purpose of SPP is to enable schools to offer mainly pastoral support to eligible pupils during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact of family mobility or parental deployment on service children. It can be used to help improve the academic progress of eligible pupils if schools deem this to be a priority.

Further information is available on how to use the SPP.

5. Assurance

5.1 Carry forward

Schools are not required to spend all of the PP grant they receive in the financial year beginning 1 April 2025; some or all of it may be carried forward to future financial years.

Any funding that is carried forward must be used in accordance with the conditions of grant for PP grant for the financial year in which the funding is spent. It must be accounted for in the setting’s PP strategy statement for the academic year in which it is spent.

Local authorities must not carry forward funding held centrally into the financial year 2026 to 2027. Centrally held PP grant relating to LAC or eligible pupils in independent settings that has not been spent, or allocated to the child’s setting, by 31 March 2026 will be recovered.

5.2 Records required

Local authorities and settings are required to maintain and keep clear records of income and expenditure in relation to this grant including evidence of the use of funds.

5.2.1 School records

Schools whose PP grant allocation for the financial year 2025 to 2026 is based on more than 5 eligible pupils (not including pupils that are eligible only for SPP) are required to publish an updated PP strategy statement annually. Those whose allocation is based on 5 pupils or fewer are not required to publish a PP strategy statement.

Although MATs can pool resources for use of PP grant across multiple academies, a separate PP strategy statement must be published for each academy within a MAT.

All individual schools that are required to publish a strategy statement for the academic year 2025 to 2026 must do so by 31 December 2025, using the PP strategy template.

DfE will review a sample of schools’ published strategy statements to ensure that PP grant has been spent in line with these conditions of grant.

Given their role in ensuring settings use funding appropriately and in holding schools to account for educational performance, governors and trustees should scrutinise schools’ strategy statements, including their plans for and use of their PP grant and the outcomes achieved in the previous academic year.

Schools are held accountable for the outcomes they achieve with all their funding, including through Ofsted inspections and by governors and trustees, and the PP grant is no exception.

There is an optional reporting section in the strategy statement in which schools can report how they are using the SPP and its impact on eligible pupils.

5.2.2 Local authority records

VSHs are responsible for making sure their local authority has set up arrangements for allocating PP funding to benefit their LAC.

VSHs should be able to demonstrate how the PP funding they manage is raising the achievement of their LAC.

Ofsted’s framework for Inspections of Local Authority Children’s Services requires inspectors to ask for the virtual school annual report (VSAR). The VSAR should include:

• details of how the VSH has managed the PP+ for LAC; and
• evidence of how the VSH’s spending of the premium has supported the achievement of the children looked-after by their local authority, including clearly setting out how top sliced funding has supported this

6. Further information

Books, 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.

Local authorities and settings shall provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether they have complied with these conditions.

7. Variation

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

8. Recovery of funding

If a local authority or setting fails to comply with the terms and conditions set out in this document, the Secretary of State may recover some or all of the PP grant that has been allocated. This will be notified in writing to the local authority or setting.

Recoveries will be made by invoice or by offsetting the amount against subsequent payments due from DfE.

The recipient must notify DfE 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.

9. Overpayments

If a setting or local authority identifies that it has been overpaid, it must contact DfE to arrange repayment of the excess. Where DfE identifies an overpayment, it may seek to recover the excess. The local authority or setting will be notified of this in writing.

10. Enquiries

For queries relating to these terms and conditions please use the Customer Help Portal.