Secretary of State for Education (): Today the Department
for Education has confirmed National Insurance Contributions
(NICs) Grant funding rates and schools' pupil premium funding
rates for the financial year 2025-26.
The NICs Grant will provide schools, colleges, and high needs
settings with over £1 billion to support them with the increases
to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025,
broken down as set out in the table below.
|
Setting/phase
|
NICs Grant funding in 2025-26
|
|
Mainstream (5-16) schools and academies
|
£786 million
|
|
High needs settings
|
£125 million
|
|
Local authority centrally employed teachers
|
£22 million
|
|
Post-16 providers
|
£155 million
|
|
Early years providers
|
£25 million
|
Despite the challenging economic context, core funding for
schools was prioritised in the Budget, and the NICs support is
additional to the £2.3 billion increase announced in October.
This means that the core schools budget will total over £64.8
billion in 2025-26.
Further information can be found on:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-contributions-nics-grant-and-early-years-national-insurance-contributions-ey-nics-grant-for-2025-to-2026
The pupil premium grant provides additional funding to schools to
support disadvantaged pupils so that they achieve and thrive in
education. Total pupil premium funding will rise to over £3
billion in 2025-26, an increase of almost 5% from 2024-25.
The pupil premium funding rates are increasing by 2.39% (and then
rounded) compared to 2024-25 rates, in line with the forecast GDP
deflator measure of inflation. The table below sets out the new
pupil premium rates that will take effect from 1 April 2025.
|
|
2025-26 pupil premium rate
|
|
Primary pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or
have been eligible in the past 6 years
|
£1,515
|
|
Secondary pupils who are eligible for free school meals,
or have been eligible in the past 6 years
|
£1,075
|
|
Children who are looked after by the local authority
|
£2,630
|
|
Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or
other state care
|
£2,630
|
The grant also provides support for children and young people of
service families, referred to as service pupil premium. The
service pupil premium rate is also increasing by 2.39% (and then
rounded) in 2025-26, to £350 per eligible pupil from 1 April
2025.
Further information can be found on
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium
