Teachers' pension employer contribution grant conditions
Published 3 March 2020
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2020
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1. Introduction
1.1 The Secretary of State for Education is providing financial assistance to maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and high needs settings in the form of the teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) for the financial year beginning 1 April 2019.
1.2 TPECG provides funding for schools to support the increase in the employer contribution to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme that came into effect on 1 September 2019.
1.3 The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will pay the TPECG funds to local authorities on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education on 30 October 2019.
1.4 The following terms and conditions apply to the TPECG for the financial year beginning 1 April 2019.
1.5 The TPECG rates and eligibility for the period 1 September 2019 to 31 March 2020 are set out in the TPECG methodology.
2. Allocation and payment to mainstream schools
2.1 Local authorities must pay to each:
- maintained nursery school
- maintained primary and secondary school
- all through maintained school
- 16 to 19 maintained school
which they are responsible for maintaining, the amounts shown in the ‘mainstream schools’ tab for each school in the allocations table.
2.2 Local authorities must comply with condition 2.1 irrespective of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share.
2.3 TPECG 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.
3. Allocation and payment to specialist settings
3.1 Each local authority is allocated an amount for their high needs settings, as set out in the TPECG allocation table, which is to be distributed in full to their high needs settings.
3.2 A local authority’s high needs settings are the:
- maintained special schools
- special academies and free schools
- pupil referral units
- alternative provision academies and free schools
- hospital schools
that are identified in the ‘High Needs Providers’ tab in the allocations table as being the responsibility of the local authority.
3.3. Local authorities will determine how much to distribute to their high needs settings as defined in 3.2 above after consultation with each of their high needs settings. Local authorities must make a distribution of TPECG to all of their high needs settings as defined in 3.2 above.
4. Independent settings
Local authorities are allocated funding for pupils with education, health and care (EHC) plans who are educated in independent settings, based on the numbers of such pupils recorded on their January 2019 alternative provision census. The allocations are shown in the ‘LA summary’ tab of the TPECG allocation table. This funding is to support increases in fees charged by independent settings as a result of the increase in the employer contribution to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.
5. Permitted use of TPECG funds
5.1 Local authorities must ensure that their maintained schools and high needs settings only spend TPECG funds in the following ways:
- for the purposes of the school or high needs setting; or
- for the benefit of pupils registered at other maintained schools, pupil referral units or hospital schools
5.2 TPECG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools, academies, pupil referral units or hospital schools, in the financial year beginning 1 April 2019. Maintained schools, academies, pupil referral units and hospital schools may carry some or all TPECG funds forward to future financial years.
6. Certification
6.1 Each local authority will be required to certify to ESFA that they have complied with these terms and conditions.
6.2 ESFA will set out the arrangements for certification in April 2021.
7. Variation
The basis for allocation of this grant may be varied by the Secretary of State from those set out above.
8. Overpayments
Any overpayment of TPECG by ESFA to a local authority shall be repaid by the local authority upon such terms and conditions as ESFA or the Secretary of State for Education shall determine.
9. Further information
9.1 Books and 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.
9.2 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.
9.3 Schools and local authorities shall provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether it has complied with these conditions.