Purpose

The pupil premium grant provides funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England.

The service pupil premium (SPP) provides support for children and young people of service families. It is combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending. Pupils that the SPP intends to support are not necessarily from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

We want to support all schools to use the wealth of evidence of ‘what works’, evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to use this funding effectively to drive high and rising standards for disadvantaged pupils.

Funding criteria

Pupil premium funding is allocated to eligible schools based on the number of:

• pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM), or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM)
• children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, including children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend pupil premium so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. It 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
• for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils

Pupil premium funding is allocated to local authorities based on the number of:

• looked-after children, supported by the local authority
• pupils who meet any of the eligibility criteria and who attend an independent setting, where the local authority pays full tuition fees

For pupils who are looked-after children, funding should be managed by the local authority’s virtual school head (VSH)  in consultation with the child’s school.

Details of the funding criteria for SPP are outlined in the Service pupil premium section.

Implications of the free school meals expansion on pupil premium

From the start of the 2026 to 2027 academic year, the Department for Education (DfE) is delivering an expansion to FSM eligibility to include all pupils from households in receipt of Universal Credit. There will then be 2 categories of FSM:

• Targeted FSM, which continues to be based on the existing £7,400 income threshold
• Expanded FSM, which will apply to meals only, covering pupils who do not qualify for Targeted FSM, but who are in households in receipt of Universal Credit

Following the expansion of FSM, only pupils eligible for Targeted FSM will be part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort. This means that pupils who become eligible for FSM for the first time through the new Expanded FSM category will not attract pupil premium funding.

Pupils who were eligible for FSM before the expansion will continue to be part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort after the expansion. That includes any pupil whose household income increases after the expansion, such that they either lose FSM eligibility altogether or become eligible for FSM through Expanded FSM. Such pupils will remain part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort for 6 years.

Further information is available on the expansion of free school meals eligibility.

Eligible schools

The following types of school are eligible to receive an allocation of pupil premium.

Local authority-maintained schools

These include:

• mainstream infant, primary, middle, junior, secondary and all-through schools serving pupils in year groups reception to year 11
• schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities and general hospital schools
• pupil referral units (PRUs), for children who do not go to a mainstream school

Academies, free schools and non-maintained special schools

These include:

• mainstream infant, primary, middle, junior, secondary and all-through academies serving pupils in year groups reception to year 11
• academies and non-maintained special schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities
• alternative provision academies, for children who do not go to a mainstream school

Pupil premium is also provided to local authorities for eligible pupils in independent settings where the local authority pays full tuition fees. It is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school.

Funding rates for the 2026 to 2027 financial year

This table shows how the pupil premium grant is allocated to schools and local authorities in the 2026 to 2027 financial year, based on per pupil rates.

Funding criteria	Amount of funding for each primary-aged pupil per year	Amount of funding for each secondary-aged pupil per year	Funding is paid to
Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years	£1,550	£1,100	School
Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or other state care	£2,690	£2,690	School
Children who are looked after by the local authority	£2,690	£2,690	Local authority

Pupil premium allocations and conditions of grant for the 2026 to 2027 financial year has more information including:

• allocations for each school and the totals at national, local authority and parliamentary constituency level
• how pupil premium funding must be spent
• how allocations are calculated