Guidance

PE and sport premium: conditions of grant 2022 to 2023 (non-maintained special schools)

Updated 11 July 2023

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The primary PE and sport premium 2022 to 2023 (“the premium”) will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education (“Secretary of State”) to the non-maintained special school as stated in section 14 of the Education Act 2002.

In accordance with section 16 of that Act, the Secretary of State sets the following terms and conditions on which financial assistance is given in relation to the premium payable for the academic year 2022 to 2023.

The premium for the 2022 to 2023 academic year is paid in 2 instalments from the Secretary of State to the non-maintained special school as follows:

Instalment	Funding received in first scheduled payment after
1	8 November 2022
2	3 May 2023

2. Purpose of the premium

The premium must be used to fund additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport, for the benefit of primary-aged pupils, in the 2022 to 2023 academic year, to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

The Secretary of State has published information on how much PE and sport premium funding primary schools receive and advice on how to spend it.

3. Basis of allocation

Allocations for the academic year 2022 to 2023 are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January 2022 census, as follows:

• schools with 17 or more pupils receive £16,000 plus £10 per pupil; and

• schools with 16 or fewer pupils receive £1,000 per pupil

Where a school’s pupils are not recorded by year group, pupils aged 5 to 10 are deemed eligible. In the case of a school which has opened or is due to open during the 2022 to 2023 academic year, the above formula will apply based on pupils recorded on the autumn 2022 school census.

4. Terms on which the premium is allocated to schools

Schools must use the funding to make additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles. Given the need to make sustainable improvements, we acknowledged that during the pandemic recovery, it was difficult for schools to spend their funding appropriately. During this time, the department made an exception to allow schools to carry unspent funding between academic years.

Given the continued effect that managing recovery has had on schools, we have decided to extend this exception (to allow schools to carry unspent funding between academic years) for the 2022 to 2023 grant into the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

The Secretary of State does not consider the following expenditure as falling within the scope of additional or sustainable improvement:

• fund capital expenditure

• employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements - these should come out of schools’ core staffing budgets

• teaching the minimum requirements of your existing PE curriculum

4.1 Capital Expenditure

Where a school has an existing capitalisation policy, it should use this policy to determine whether proposed spending would be considered to be capital expenditure. If a school does not have a capitalisation policy, it remains for them to determine what qualifies as capital. An explanation of capital expenditure is included in the associated guidance.

The non-maintained special school  must publish, on their website, information about their use of the premium by the 31 July 2023 at the latest.

The non-maintained special school must publish:

• the amount of premium received

• a full breakdown of how it has been spent, or will be spent before 31 July 2023

• what impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment

• how the improvements will be sustainable in the future

• the percentage of pupils within their year 6 cohort for academic year 2022 to 2023 that can do each of the following:

  • swim competently, confidently, and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres

  • use a range of strokes effectively

  • perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

If selected, schools must also take part in a sampling review to scrutinise their compliance with these conditions.

5. Variation

The basis for allocation of the premium may be varied by the Secretary of State from those set out above, if requested by the non-maintained special school or at the discretion of the Secretary of State.

6. Other conditions

If the non-maintained special school fails to comply with the conditions set out in the paragraphs above, including but not limited to the non-maintained special school misusing the premium, the Secretary of State may require the repayment of the whole or any part of the premium paid to the non-maintained special school or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the premium.

This will be notified in writing to the non-maintained special school and any such sum that has been notified shall immediately become payable to the Secretary of State or withheld from future instalments of the premium.

7. Overpayments

The Secretary of State will conduct a final reconciliation on the premium. Any overpayment made to the non-maintained special school by the Secretary of State will either be recovered by the Secretary of State reducing future payments to recover any overpayments or the non-maintained special school will repay any overpayment within 30 days of receiving an invoice.

8. Further information

The books and other documents and records relating to the recipient’s accounts (for the purposes of this grant “recipient” is the non-maintained special school) shall be open to inspection by the Secretary of State and by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The Comptroller and Auditor General may, pursuant to 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.

The non-maintained special school shall provide such further information as may be required by the Secretary of State for the purpose of determining whether, or to what extent, it has complied with the conditions set out in this document.

Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State requiring repayment of the whole or any part of the premium paid to the non-maintained special school, according to the method outlined in paragraph 5, or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the premium.