Guidance

Pupil premium 2024 to 2025: conditions of grant for local authorities

Updated 12 December 2024

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The Secretary of State for Education lays down the following terms and conditions on which assistance is given in relation to pupil premium (PP) grant payable to local authorities for the financial year beginning 1 April 2024.

PP grant rates and detailed eligibility criteria for the financial year 2024 to 2025 are set out in the PP grant technical note.

PP grant funding is allocated to local authorities for 2 separate objectives:

• raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to help them reach their potential
• providing support for children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces

2.Funding criteria

There are different funding criteria for each objective set out above.

2.1 Raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils

PP grant is allocated to local authorities, who must distribute it to each school they maintain 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) 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 for further detail)

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

Local authorities also receive PP grant for any pupils eligible for PP in any 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.

2.2 Providing support for children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces

The portion of PP grant for children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces is referred to as service pupil premium (SPP). It has been combined into PP payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending, but the group of pupils that SPP is intended to support are not necessarily from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

SPP is allocated to local authorities, to distribute to each school they maintain, based on the number of pupils who meet 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 – 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

3. Permitted use of PP grant

PP grant must be spent to deliver the objectives and support eligible pupil cohorts as described in sections 2.1 and 2.2 above.

The grant can be spent:

• for the benefit of eligible pupils registered at the school who 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 school - 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

Schools do not have to spend PP so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. PP 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.

3.1 The ‘menu of approaches’

To ensure PP grant is focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of eligible pupils, schools (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 the Department for Education (DfE). The menu of approaches is in the using pupil premium guidance.

The menu aligns with the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF’s) evidence-informed tiered approach, which helps schools allocate spending across 3 key areas:

• developing high-quality teaching, for example through professional development and recruitment and retention
• providing targeted academic support, such as one-to-one or small group tuition
• tackling non-academic barriers to academic success, such as difficulties with attendance, behaviour and social and emotional wellbeing

When considering the balance of spending within the 3-tiered model set out in EEF’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 pupil premium 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.

3.2 Looked-after children

For LAC, it is the responsibility of the designated 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 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

3.3 Previously looked-after children

For PLAC, it is the responsibility of the school 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.

3.4 Independent special schools

Local authorities may allocate PP grant to independent schools 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 schools about how to use PP grant to support eligible pupils.

3.5 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 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 on how to use the SPP can be found in the SPP guidance.

4. Accountability

Schools whose PP grant allocation for the financial year 2024 to 2025 is based on more than 5 eligible pupils 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.

All schools that are required to publish a strategy statement for the academic year 2024 to 2025 must do so by 31 December 2024, using the template available in the guidance page.

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 schools use funding appropriately and in holding schools to account for educational performance, governors 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 the PP grant is no exception.

5. Allocation and payment arrangements

DfE will publish initial allocations 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 pupil referral units that complete the January 2024 census.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (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

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 schools 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 grant technical note.

If a 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 grant technical note.

6.Carrying PP grant forward

Schools are not required to spend all of the PP grant they receive in the financial year beginning 1 April 2024; 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 school’s pupil premium strategy statement for the academic year in which it is spent.

Local authorities must not carry forward funding held centrally into the financial year 2025 to 2026. Centrally held PP grant relating to LAC or eligible pupils in independent schools that has not been spent, or allocated to the child’s school, by 31 March 2025 will be recovered.

7. Certification

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. ESFA will issue a certification form in spring 2025.

8. 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 school.

9.Non-compliance

If a local authority or school 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 school.

10. Overpayments

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

11. Further information

The books, other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts must be made available for 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 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 these terms and conditions. Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State withholding subsequent instalments of PP grant.