Guidance

Free breakfast clubs grant: conditions of grant for September 2026 to July 2027

Published 8 July 2026

Applies to England

1. Introduction

1.1 Legislation

The free breakfast clubs grant will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002. In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable.

1.2 Purpose

The free breakfast clubs grant is for the purpose of funding primary schools to offer breakfast clubs, which will contribute to 2 aims of the government’s opportunity mission:

1. Tackling child poverty – the scheme aims to increase household incomes, by reducing the amount families spend on groceries and before school childcare and contributing to an increase in parents’ ability to work more hours.
2. Achieving and thriving – by ensuring children start the day on time and are fed, the programme aims to set children up to listen and concentrate throughout the school day, improving their ability to achieve, and reducing the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils.

Recipients of this grant must ensure that the minimum requirements, as set out in the guidance Free breakfast clubs: guidance for schools and trusts for phase 1 of the national rollout from April 2026 are met. You will need to confirm your place on the programme by using the Free breakfast club service via DfE Sign-in. This confirmation will be taken as acceptance the recipient agrees to the grant conditions. Should a school wish to exit the programme before delivery commences, but after accepting their place, a letter stating the reasons of withdrawal must be provided to the department from the Chair of Governors.

The funding formula calculations in the Free breakfast clubs grant: methodology from April 2026 to July 2027 should be read in conjunction with the terms along with the overarching policy pages.

For schools that have been accepted as free breakfast club champions, additional:

• grant conditions can be found in the Free breakfast club champions: conditions of grant 2026 to 2027
• details of payments can be found in the Free breakfast clubs grant: methodology for April 2026 to July 2027

1.3 Period

These conditions of grant cover the 2026 to 2027 academic year, September 2026 until July 2027. Further guidance covering the next academic year 2027 to 2028 will be available in due course.

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 at section 2.2.

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 signed up for, and been accepted onto, the free breakfast clubs programme. Only primary-aged pupils, defined as those in reception to year 6 within these settings, are eligible for the funding.

3. Payments

3.1 Calculation

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

A fixed payment will be made at the end of October 2026 for local authorities and beginning of November 2026 for academies. This fixed, upfront payment, which covers autumn term, will be paid alongside the arrears payment for summer term 2026 for existing schools already on the programme.

A second payment will be made at the end of February 2027 for local authorities and beginning of March 2027 for academies. This second payment will consist of a fixed, upfront payment for spring term and an arrears payment for autumn which will be determined by actual pupil uptake from data collected from schools in autumn term.

A third payment will be made at the end of May 2027 for local authorities and beginning of June 2027 for academies. This third payment will consist of a fixed, upfront payment for summer term and an arrears payment for spring term which will be determined by actual pupil uptake from data collected from schools in spring term. Further payments will be made within the next grant term, beginning September 2027.

Schools will be required to provide data through a digital grant monitoring form that will be sent out from the Department for Education (DfE) – more details can be found in section 3.2. Schools will become entitled to their grant funding once we receive their daily uptake data which determines the payment value. For the summer term this entitlement will be established by the receipt of data collected in May and June 2027.

3.2 Data collection

From autumn term 2026, schools participating in the programme must record attendance at free breakfast clubs for pupils in Reception to Year 6 in their systems daily. This data will be collected and reported to the department through 2 routes:

1. The school census: from the spring 2027 school census onwards, attendance data for pupils who attended at least one session during the specified collection period will be collected for the previous term (so in the spring term 2027 census, schools must report data for autumn term 2026).
2. From 1 September 2026, free breakfast club attendance data will be collected directly from management information systems (MIS) in the same manner as school attendance data through the data aggregator Wonde.

In autumn term 2026, this data will be used for monitoring and evaluation purposes only. We will assess the quality and robustness of the data before we consider using it for any other purposes, including to inform funding allocations. Schools will therefore be required to continue or begin to report the number of pupils attending the free breakfast club over a one-week period through the digital grant monitoring form that is sent out once a term. This data will continue to be used to determine their in-arrears per pupil funding.

For autumn term 2026, schools will be expected to record pupil attendance during census week which is 9 November 2026 to 13 November 2026, unless a different date is agreed with the department. The grant monitoring form will open for submissions on 16 November 2026 and will close on 4 December 2026. Any submissions made after this date will mean payment is delayed by a further term.

For spring term 2027, schools will be expected to record pupil attendance during census week which is 1 February 2027 to 5 February 2027, unless a different date is agreed with the department. The grant monitoring form will open for submissions on 8 February 2027 and will close on 12 March 2027. Any submissions made after this date will mean payment is delayed by a further term.

For summer term 2027, schools will be expected to record pupil attendance during census week which is 7 June 2027 to 11 June 2027, unless a different date is agreed with the department. The grant monitoring form will open for submissions on 14 June 2027 and will close on 2 July 2027. Any submissions made after this date will mean payment is delayed by a further term. Summer term arrears payments will be made in late October or early November, details of which will be in the next grant schedule.

3.3 Payment timetable

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

To note: further payments will be made in the next grant schedule beginning September 2028.

Payment 1:

• for existing schools: upfront payment for autumn term plus arrears payment for summer term
• for joining schools: upfront payment for autumn term plus one off start up grant

Payment 2:

• for existing schools: upfront payment for spring term plus arrears payment for autumn term
• for joining schools: upfront payment for spring term plus one off start up grant

Payment 3:

• for existing schools: upfront payment for summer term plus arrears payment for spring term
• for joining schools: upfront payment for summer term plus one off start up grant

3.4 School closures, openings and academy conversions

If a setting closes during the financial year, the local authority (for maintained schools) or DfE (for academies) should allocate the grant for the proportion of the financial year the setting is open.

This grant is allocated on a school level basis. We will not seek to claw back any grant funding from a local authority if a school converts to academy status after the payment is made. The grant allocation is intended for the school, it will be assumed the local authority passed on the entire grant funding to the school immediately upon receipt from DfE. In addition, any unspent grant funding should remain with the school after it converts.

In respect to calculating a school’s final accounts, any prorated amount up to the point of conversion is included in the balance calculation for the school. The remaining amount which relates for the period after the school has converted, should be accounted for by the academy.

Where a school has converted to an academy by 1 October 2026, the academy will receive its academic year 2026 to 2027 grant directly from DfE.

Local authorities should pay academic year 2026 to 2027 grant to schools due to convert to academy status as follows:

Date of conversion to academy	Proportion of 2026 to 2027 grant passed on by local authority
On or by 1 October 2026	Funds paid direct to academy
After 1 October 2026 and on or by 1 February 2027	Any unspent start-up or arrears funding
After 1 February 2027 and on or by 1 May 2027	Any unspent start-up or arrears funding
After 1 May 2027	Any unspent start-up or arrears funding

3.5 Additional local authority duty

Local authorities will be required to certify that they have passed on the correct amount of funding to schools. We will issue a certification form in spring 2027. Local authorities must pass funding on to their maintained schools including special and AP, in a timely manner in line with their scheme for financing schools.

4. Permitted use of funding

The per pupil funding allocation made in arrears must only be spent on the breakfast foods, drinks, and associated staffing and delivery costs and must not be spent on any costs associated with other provision outside of the breakfast club, for example, lunch provision or other childcare provision offered by the school. The per pupil funding allocation must only be used for primary aged pupils on roll at the school.

The purpose of the initial payment is to cover administration and fixed staffing costs (for example, staff to set-up or clean up the club and prepare or serve food). The one-off set up payment, which will only be paid to new schools joining the scheme, could be spent on equipment needed to set up or run a breakfast club, for example, kitchen equipment, kitchenware, basic furniture (such as tables and chairs), staff training, systems, design or infrastructure.

It must not be spent on providing a free breakfast club, ahead of the club start date or to fund existing wraparound arrangements. The one-off set up payment must also not be used to purchase anything the school requires for other provision, such as lunch provision or other childcare provision the school offers.

Schools may pass on funding to providers in order to deliver their breakfast clubs, but it is the school’s responsibility to ensure DfE funding conditions are still met (such as data collection) and that there are appropriate guards in place against profiteering. Schools must also ensure that any providers for childcare are Ofsted registered. Schools must comply with any relevant procurement regulations, in line with their standard practices on buying and procurement.

Wraparound childcare funding cannot be claimed for the same thing during the same time as breakfast club funding. For example, you cannot claim both for a session of 30 minutes before the start of the school day. Wraparound childcare funding can be claimed for a separate session, such as a place within a session before the 30 minutes free and universal session begins, or a place in a parallel paid-for provision running at the same time.

Wraparound funding, unlike breakfast club funding, can be used to fund places in advance of need, to make sure there are sufficient places for when parents do need it. Where claims for breakfast club funding duplicates wraparound funding, breakfast clubs funding requests will be rejected.

Where schools have wraparound childcare which starts prior to the 30 minutes before the school day covered by breakfast club funding, they must communicate clearly with parents what is paid for and what is free. Parents must not be charged for the government-funded 30 minute offer, nor required to attend paid for provision in order to access the 30 minute offer.

Schools cannot claim funding for more than one breakfast per pupil. If a school already receives breakfast funding from local authorities or charities, the school must be able to demonstrate that funding has not been received twice for the same expenditure.

4.1 Other conditions

Schools must ensure the offer is inclusive for all pupils and make adjustments as necessary, considering any related legislation and guidance. Schools will need to work with local authorities to ensure local authorities meet their statutory duty to transport children to special, AP and maintained schools, in a timely manner.

Where issues such as local authority organised transport or other exceptional circumstances may impact the schools’ ability to meet minimum requirements, schools are expected to contact us through the customer help portal to discuss on a case-by-case basis.

If breakfast club provision is off-site, schools are responsible for ensuring children are back on-site for the start of lessons.

Schools should record as attending, only those pupils whom they judge to arrive in time to benefit from an earlier start to the school day. Schools should work proactively with parents and carers to promote punctual attendance, ensuring children can fully access the benefits of the free breakfast club.

Schools cannot place compulsory additional charges on families accessing the 30 minutes free breakfast clubs. They should be delivered in a way that prevents children who attend the free breakfast club only, from facing stigma, as far as possible.

Schools taking part in the free breakfast club programme will be required to engage with the DfE and any associated evaluation or management information (MI) activities and collections and should attend their allocated peer to peer or champion support network meetings on a regular basis.

Following the passage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act, every state-funded school with children on roll from Reception to Year 6 will be required to offer a free breakfast club before the start of each school day. We will roll this out gradually, funding more schools to join the programme in phases.

Given this, we do not expect schools to exit the free breakfast club programme and will work with schools to overcome challenges encountered.

Should a school wish to exit the free breakfast club programme, they are required to notify us by using the portal form: Free breakfast clubs programme contact us, and engage with us on potential solutions.

In the event that a school still wishes to exit the programme, the school would be required to submit a Chair of Governors letter to the department and give parents and carers a notice period of 1 term before ending or significantly altering the breakfast club provision.

Where a school has previously been a part of the early adopters or free breakfast club programme and has exited and then rejoined the programme, they will not be eligible to receive  the one-off payment for a second time.

Where a school has remained part of the free breakfast club programme and has not commenced, or has paused delivery, but has still received funding, the department reserves the right to adjust future grant payments to recoup these funds. This will be communicated to the school directly.

5. Assurance

5.1 Carry forward

Funds must not be carried forward to fund breakfast clubs in the 2027 to 2028 academic year. All funds must be used to reimburse costs incurred by end of July 2027, and any funding not required for the purposes outlined in these terms and conditions by this date, should be returned to DfE.

5.2 Records required

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. This will also include per pupil daily attendance numbers for certain periods.

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

6. Further information

Books, 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.

Local authorities and settings shall provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether they have complied with these conditions.

7. Variation

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

8. Recovery of funding

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

Recoveries will be made by invoice or by offsetting the amount against subsequent payments due from DfE.

The recipient must notify us immediately through the customer help portal if it becomes aware of any instance of error, suspected fraud or financial irregularity in the use of the funds.

9. Overpayments

If a setting or local authority identifies that it has been overpaid, it must contact us to arrange repayment of the excess. Where we identify an overpayment, we may seek to recover the excess. The local authority or setting will be notified of this in writing.

10. Enquiries

For queries relating to these terms and conditions, use the Free breakfast clubs programme: contact us form.