Guidance

Free breakfast club champions: conditions of grant

Updated 18 February 2026

Applies to England

1. Purpose

These conditions are for schools on the free breakfast club (FBC) programme who have a been accepted to the additional role of free breakfast club champion.

Recipients of this additional element of the main grant must ensure that the conditions as set out below are met. Receipt of the grant payment will be taken as acceptance of the grant conditions.

The funding formula calculations in breakfast clubs early adopters: methodology for September 2025 to March 2026  should be read in conjunction with the full grant conditions and along with the overarching policy pages.

FBC champions will be expected to deliver in 3 main areas:

• the creation and facilitation of best practice groups on specific areas of breakfast club delivery
• the creation and facilitation of cluster drop-in sessions based on geographical location
• tailored support and promotion of FBCs

There will also be a requirement to liaise with the Department for Education (DfE) and the external advisers on a consistent basis.

1.1 Period

The FBC champion role is for an initial 12-month period beginning April 2026 and ending March 2027. These conditions of grant cover the 2025 to 2026 academic year, April until July 2026.

Further guidance covering the next academic year 2026 to 2027 will be available.

2. Eligibility

2.1 Types of settings

The following settings (other than where established in a hospital) are eligible to receive funding, provided they meet the criteria as set out in section 2.2 of Free breakfast clubs grant: conditions of grant for April to July 2026.

Local authorities

This includes local authority maintained:

• mainstream schools
• special schools
• pupil referral units

This does not include pre-school, secondary or sixth-form provisions in these settings.

Academies

This includes:

• mainstream academies
• alternative provision (AP) and special academies
• non-maintained special schools (NMSS)

This does not include pre-school, secondary or sixth-form provision in these settings.

2.2 Criteria

Settings are only eligible for this funding where they have been accepted onto the free breakfast club champion role.

3. Payments

3.1 Calculation

An allocation for this additional grant payment has been calculated using a standardised methodology.  We will publish the breakdown at setting level shortly before each payment.

Settings will be required to provide data through a digital form that will be sent out from DfE. This data will include work concluded during a defined period and other data to provide assurance that minimum requirements have been met monthly.

Details of what data we require will be released ahead of data collection.

3.2  Payment timetable

Payment	Local authorities and their maintained schools	Academies	Non-maintained special schools
Payment 1	May 2026	June 2026	May 2026
Payment 2	October 2026	November 2026	October 2026
Payment 3	February 2027	March 2027	February 2027

Payment 2 and 3 will fall within the next grant period.

4. Permitted use of funding

FBC champions will be compensated for up to 2.5 days per month, for a 12 month period, excluding August where there will be no scheduled work or payments. This is a maximum time commitment and must not be exceeded. Where demand for support is low, champions may use less than the 2.5 days permitted per month.

The purpose for this payment is to backfill the headteacher or a senior leader to provide support to new schools on the programme. We envisage that up to:

• 2 days per month will be spent on active support
• 0.5 days per month will be spent on administration

A headteacher or senior leader may delegate some tasks to other staff however, these may not be claimed for concurrently. For example, a setting should not appoint 2 members of staff to run a one-hour meeting and then claim for 2 hours of work.

Other members of staff should only be used in lieu of a headteacher or senior leader, and only where appropriate.

5. Assurance

5.1 Records required

FBC champions will be asked to submit data monthly detailing time that has been spent:

• hosting meetings
• attending meetings
• completing feedback forms
• performing other tasks

Local authorities and settings are required to maintain and keep clear records of income and expenditure in relation to this grant, including evidence of the use of funds.

Records must be kept for 7 years and DfE may ask for these for audit and assurance purposes.