My Right Honourable Friend, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities (Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson) has made the following statement.
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
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