Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery premium 2022 to 2023: conditions of grant for local authorities

Updated 23 June 2023

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 the recovery premium grant (RPG) payable to local authorities for the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The RPG rates and detailed eligibility criteria for the academic year 2022 to 2023 are set out in the RPG technical note.

The RPG is part of the government’s package of funding to support education recovery following the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

It is a time-limited grant for the 2021 to 2022 to the 2023 to 2024 academic years.

2. Distribution of RPG

RPG funding for maintained schools is distributed to local authorities, who must allocate it as set out in sections 2.1 to 2.3.

Where the number of eligible pupils in a school results in their allocation being below the relevant floor amount (see the technical note) the allocation shall be increased to the floor amount.

If a school or PRU becomes an academy during the academic year, their subsequent instalments following conversion will be paid direct by ESFA.

If a school opens or closes during the academic year, the local authority shall allocate RPG for the proportion of the academic year the school is open.

Where a school receives pupils from schools that close, or as a result of school merger, the local authority shall allocate the same grant that it would have allocated to the schools that closed or merged for the remainder of the academic year. Local authorities should agree the amount a school receives from schools that close.

Local authorities must make the grant available to their schools irrespective of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. RPG is not part of schools’ budget shares and is not part of the individual schools budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.

2.1 Mainstream schools (not including special educational needs (SEN) units in those schools – see section 2.2)

RPG allocations for mainstream schools are based on pupil premium grant (PPG) eligibility. Local authorities must distribute RPG (at the rates set out in the technical note) 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, or have been recorded as eligible at any point in the last 6 years (FSM Ever 6). This includes eligible children of families who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF)

• previously looked-after children (PLAC) pupils. Pupils who were looked-after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order).

2.2 Special schools, SEN units in mainstream schools, pupil referral units (PRUs) and general hospital schools

Local authorities must distribute RPG (at the rates set out in the technical note) to each school they maintain based on the total number of pupils in reception to year 11, minus those children who are looked after by the local authority – see section 2.3.

Local authorities also receive RPG based on any pupils in independent special schools where the authority pays full tuition fees. The floor payment does not apply to this allocation.

It is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school.

2.3 RPG funding for looked-after children (LAC)

RPG is allocated to local authorities based on the number of 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.

3.  Permitted use of RPG

The grant can be spent:

• for the benefit of pupils registered at the school that receives it

• for the benefit of pupils registered at other maintained schools or academies

• on community services whose provision furthers the benefit of pupils at the school.

Schools must use RPG funding for the purpose of supporting pupils’ educational recovery.

Mainstream schools may wish to use a portion of RPG funding to support pupils who do not meet any of the RPG eligibility criteria such as those who have or have had a social worker or act as a carer.

In special settings all pupils are eligible.

In line with the 3-tiered approach in the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF’s) pupil premium guide, activities must be those that:

• support the quality of teaching

• provide targeted academic support, and

• tackle non-academic barriers to academic success, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support

To support schools to use RPG in line with the 3 tiers outlined above, DfE have published a ‘menu of approaches’, which has been informed by evidence of effective practice. All eligible schools must use their RPG (and their pupil premium grant (PPG) funding – see the PPG conditions of grant) in line with this menu from the start of the 2022 to 2023 academic year. Schools are not required to allocate RPG to every approach on the menu, but any activity funded by RPG must fall under one of the approaches listed.

The menu of approaches is on page 7 of the Using Pupil Premium guidance.

Schools must not use RPG to meet their portion of the costs of tuition provided through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). Schools are required to meet those costs from other sources of income, such as PPG. RPG is additional funding to provide further education recovery support on top of the subsidised NTP offer.

3.1 Using RPG to support LAC

In order to support educational recovery for LAC, it is the responsibility of the Virtual School Head (VSH) in the local authority that looks after the child, in consultation with the child’s educational setting, to ensure that RPG is used to support those children’s educational needs in accordance with their personal education plans and in line with the menu of approaches.

See the sections on pupil premium plus and the menu of approaches in the Using Pupil Premium guidance for further information.

The local authority can pool any amount of LAC RPG to fund activities that will benefit a group, or all, of the authority’s LAC. Any RPG 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.

For any funding that is passed on to the child’s education setting, processes for allocating the funds should be as simple as possible to avoid delay.

3.2 Using RPG to support previously looked-after children (PLAC)

In order to support education recovery for PLAC, it is the responsibility of the school to ensure that their use of RPG addresses the specific needs of PLAC attending the school.

See the section on pupil premium plus in the Using Pupil Premium guidance for further information.

3.3 Using RPG to support pupils in independent special schools 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. Local authorities must consult the child’s school about how to use RPG to support eligible pupils in line with the menu of approaches.

4.  Use of evidence

Schools must be able to demonstrate how the activity they use their RPG to fund has been informed by research evidence, making reference to a range of sources, such as that published by the EEF.

Schools are required to cite this evidence in their pupil premium strategy statement – see section 5.1.

5.  Accountability

5.1 Strategy statements

To comply with school information regulations, maintained schools are required to publish an updated pupil premium strategy statement annually. Schools are required to include information on how they have used their RPG in this statement.

All schools must use the template available on the Using Pupil Premium guidance page on GOV.UK to publish their 2022 to 2023 statement by the end of December 2022.

The template is designed to enable schools to present an overview of their strategy for use of their PPG and RPG, and to demonstrate that their use of the funding meets the requirements of the conditions of grant for both grants. The template requires schools to report on their use of PPG and RPG in line with the 3-tiered approach set out in section 3. As stated in section 3, all activity funded by the RPG (and PPG) must align with the published menu of approaches.

Given their role in ensuring schools spend funding appropriately, and in holding schools to account for educational performance, governors should scrutinise schools’ statements, including their plans for use of their RPG 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 RPG is no exception.

The Department for Education will undertake monitoring checks on a sample of schools’ published statements. If the local authority or a school fails to comply with the terms set out in this document, the Secretary of State may recover some or all of the RPG funding that has been allocated. This will be notified in writing to the authority or school.

5.2 Declaration of compliance with these conditions of grant

All eligible schools are required to declare that the RPG they have spent during the 2022 to 2023 academic year has been spent in line with the conditions set out in this document. A tick-box declaration will be added to the 2022 to 2023 year-end statement for NTP.

6.  Allocation and payment schedule

We will pay RPG to local authorities in quarterly instalments by:

• 30 September 2022

• 30 December 2022

• 31 March 2023

• 30 June 2023

Updated allocations will be published shortly before each instalment is paid.

7. Carrying RPG forward

Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered where the department has identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG.

Local authorities must not carry forward funding held centrally into the 2023 to 2024 academic year. Centrally held LAC premium that has not been spent, or allocated to the child’s education setting by 31 August 2023, will be recovered.

8.  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. We will issue a certification form in Spring 2023.

9.  Variation

The basis for allocation of RPG may be varied by the Secretary of State from those set out above, if requested by the school or local authority.

10.  Overpayments

Any overpayment of RPG shall be repaid by the school or local authority.

11.  Other terms

If the local authority or a school fails to comply with the terms set out in this document, the Secretary of State may recover some or all of the RPG funding that has been allocated. This will be notified in writing to the authority or school.

12.  Further information

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.

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.

Schools and local authorities shall provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State for the purpose of determining whether, or to what extent, they have complied with the conditions set out in this document.

Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State withholding subsequent instalments of the RPG.