Guidance

School staff instructor (SSI) funding grant: local authorities and maintained schools conditions of grant 2023 to 2024

Published 25 October 2023

Applies to England

1.Introduction

The school staff instructor (SSI) funding grant 2023 to 2024 (“grant funding”) will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education (“Secretary of State”) to the local authority (“authority”), 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 premium payable for the academic year 2023 to 2024. The local authority is required to distribute the grant funding to maintained schools ^{[footnote 1]}that have a Combined Cadet Force (CCF) with an SSI in post. 

The grant funding for the 2023 to 2024 academic year is paid in a single instalment from the Secretary of State to local authorities as follows:

2023 to 2024 academic year	Payment date
September 2023 to August 2024	October 2023

2. Purpose of the grant funding

The grant funding once allocated to the school must be placed under the control of the SSI of the school’s CCF. The grant funding meets the commitment to support SSIs and to confirm departmental support for achieving the government ambition of having 60,000 cadets in school cadet units. The grant funding matches the funding provided by the department for the academic years 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023.

The purpose of the funding is to enable an SSI to spend more time on cadet duties and associated SSI tasks, which, in turn will help to sustain the unit and the growth of cadet numbers.

3. Basis of allocation of the grant funding

The grant funding for the academic year 2023 to 2024 will replicate the funding paid by the department to local authorities in respect of SSIs in post in maintained schools that had a CCF in previous academic years and is calculated as follows:

51 days (one day per week for 51 weeks) x £74.80 (daily rate) = £3814.80

The allocations for each school in the local authority that has a CCF with an SSI in post will be published in October 2023 and include schools that were maintained schools on 1 September 2023.

In the case of a school which has appointed, or expects to appoint, an SSI during the 2023 to 2024 academic year, the school will be eligible for the grant only where a start date has been set on or before 29 February 2024. The rate payable will equate to the number of weeks left within the academic year from the date at which the SSI started, or is expected to start, in post. Payments will not be made for an SSI who has not started in post, or had a set start date, on or before 29 February 2024.

For example, if there were 30 weeks remaining, the amount payable would be 30 x £74.80.

Local authorities should not pay the grant funding to academies that converted before 1 September 2023, as they will receive their funding directly from ESFA.

The grant funding must be made available by the local authority to the school irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. The grant funding is not part of schools’ 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. Terms on which the grant funding is allocated to schools

Local authorities must pass the grant funding to those maintained schools that have a CCF with an SSI in post within one month of receipt and must require that those maintained schools comply with the terms set out below:

• the grant funding is only payable when a school that has a CCF has an SSI in post. Where an SSI holds this position for 2 (or more) separate CCFs they will be entitled to the grant funding for each of the CCFs
• the grant funding once allocated to the school must be placed under the control of the SSI of the school’s CCF
• the grant funding is provided on the basis that it must only be used to fund the SSI to spend additional time in the performance of CCF duties and activities applicable to their role, therefore supporting the success and sustainment of the CCF and assisting with cadet growth

5. Certification 

Local authorities will be required to certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools which have a CCF with an SSI in post and, where funding has been spent, that it has been spent in line with the terms set out above. 

6. Variation

The basis for allocation of the grant funding may be varied by the Secretary of State from the terms set out in clause 4 above, if requested by the local authority or at the discretion of the Secretary of State.

7. Other terms

If the local authority or a school fails to comply with the terms set out in the paragraphs above, including but not limited to the misuse of grant funding, the Secretary of State may require the recovery of the whole or any part of the grant funding paid to the school or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the grant funding.

This will be notified in writing to the local authority or school and any such sum that has been notified shall be recovered by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) on behalf of the Secretary of State from the authority or withheld from subsequent instalments of the grant funding.

8. Overpayments

Any overpayment of the grant funding shall be recovered by ESFA on behalf of the Secretary of State from the authority.

9. Further information

The books and other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts (for the purposes of this grant “recipient” is the local authority or school) must be made available for inspection by the Secretary of State and 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.

The local authority or school must provide such further information as may be required by the Secretary of State for the purpose of determining whether, or to what extent, it has complied with the terms set out in this document. Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State requiring repayment of the whole or any part of the grant funding paid to the local authority or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the grant funding.

1. “Maintained school” has the same meaning as section 20 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 and means (unless the context otherwise requires) a community, foundation or voluntary school or a community or foundation special school. ↩