National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant for 2025 to 2026
Guidance for schools and local authorities on the National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guidance is for:
- local authorities
- school leaders
- governing bodies and their representatives
It relates to local-authority-maintained schools, academies (including free schools), and local authorities employing centrally employed staff (CES) in England.
Methodology
This document sets out the methodology for the NICs grant. This includes guidance on how we will allocate funding for the 2025 to 2026 financial year: for mainstream schools (for the 5- to 16-year-old age range) and for local authorities with CES.
For the first time, we are providing additional grant funding for mainstream schools and academies with special units and resourced provision (SURPs). This funding will support the higher staffing costs that schools with SURPs typically face. Details of how we will allocate this funding can be found in the methodology document.
The funding for mainstream primary, secondary and all-through schools will be incorporated into core budget allocations for 2026 to 2027, by being rolled into the schools national funding formula (NFF) for 2026 to 2027. We will ensure that the usual appropriate arrangements are in place for academies, to ensure they continue to receive support in the period from April to August 2026, given their funding cycle follows the academic year.
Conditions of grant
We have published the NICs conditions of grant for April 2025 to March 2026, which sets out the terms and conditions that local authorities and academies must follow.
Allocations
We published allocations for new and growing schools in February 2026, mainstream schools in May 2025 and local authorities with CES in August 2025.
Payments
Payment 1
Payment 1 (which will include the first allocation for mainstream schools with SURPs) will be paid to local authorities (high-needs settings and CES) and their maintained schools in September 2025 and to academies in October 2025.
Payment 2
Payment 2 (to cover new and growing schools, and the second allocation for mainstream schools with SURPs) will be paid to local authorities (high-needs settings and CES) and their maintained schools in March 2026 and to academies in April 2026.
Updates to this page
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Added 'National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant: New and growing schools allocations (February 2026)'.
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We have added a 'Payments' section to the 'National Insurance contributions (NICs) grant for 2025 to 2026' page to make clear payment timings for both local authorities and academies.
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We have had added the allocations for local authority centrally employed teachers (CETs) and accordingly made minor amendments to section 4.3 of the methodology.
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First published.