Guidance

Primary PE and sport premium: conditions of grant for the academic year 2026 to 2027

Published 23 September 2026

Applies to England

1. Introduction

1.1 Legislation

The PE and sport premium grant will be paid by the Secretary of State for Education (the Secretary of State) as a grant under section 14 of the Education Act 2002 (EA 2002). In accordance with section 16 of the EA 2002, the Secretary of State attaches the following terms to the grant payable for the academic year 2026 to 2027.

1.2 Purpose

The purpose of the PE and sport premium grant is for schools to make additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

This means schools must use the PE and sport premium grant to both:

• build capacity and capability within the school and ensure that improvements to the quality of PE, sport and physical activity provision made now are sustainable and will benefit pupils joining the school in future years
• develop or add to the PE, sport and physical activity that the school provides

Any use of the PE and sport premium grant must be in accordance with the terms outlined in this document.

The Department for Education (DfE) has published information on how much premium funding primary schools receive, and advice on how to spend it.

1.3 Time period 

These conditions of grant cover the academic year 2026 to 2027.

2. Eligibility

2.1 Types of settings

The following settings are eligible to receive the PE and sport premium grant:

Local authorities, including:

• mainstream schools
• special schools
• pupil referral units and hospital schools

Academies, including:

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

3. Payments

3.1 Calculation

An allocation for this grant has been calculated using a standardised methodology.

Allocations for the academic year 2026 to 2027 are calculated using the number of pupils in years 1 to 6, as recorded in the January 2026 census, as follows:

• schools with 17 or more pupils receive £6240 plus £10 per pupil
• schools with 16 or fewer pupils receive £390 per pupil

Where a school’s pupils are not recorded by year group, pupils aged 5 to 10 are deemed eligible.

For schools that are teaching eligible pupils for the first time in the academic year 2026 to 2027 we use data from the autumn 2026 school census, where they are otherwise eligible for the PE and sport premium grant. These schools will receive a payment in February 2027.

3.2 Payment timetable       

	Local authorities and their maintained schools	Academies	NMSS
Payment date	30 October 2026	9 November 2026	18 December 2026

3.3 School closures, openings and academy conversions

The allocations for each school in the authority will be published in October 2026 and include schools that were maintained schools on 1 September 2026.

Authorities should not pay the PE and sport premium grant to proprietors of academies that converted before 1 September 2026.

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

If a school opens after the 1 September 2026, it will not qualify for any payment of the PE and sport premium grant (this does not apply to maintained schools that close and reopen as an academy).

This grant is allocated on a school level basis. DfE will not seek to clawback 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, and the local authority shall pass 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 pro-rated 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.

3.4 Additional local authority obligation

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 the terms outlined in this document. DfE will issue a certification form in spring 2027.

Local authorities must pass the PE and sport premium grant on to their maintained schools immediately in line with their scheme for financing schools. The PE and sport premium grant must be made available by the authority to the school irrespective of the existence of any deficit relating to the expenditure of the school’s budget share. The PE and sport premium grant is not part of the school’s budget shares and is not part of the individual school’s budget. It is not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the minimum funding guarantee.

4. Assurance

4.1 Eligible spend

The PE and sport premium grant must only be spent on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of all primary-aged pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.

Schools must spend the PE and sport premium grant within the academic year it has been allocated for. Schools cannot roll-over any unused funding into the following academic year.

The school should make its best endeavours to ensure that the PE and sport premium grant is deployed in a manner that benefits the school as a whole, rather than being restricted to a specific year group or cohort.

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

• capital expenditure (except for goods within the de minimis value – the threshold limit value set for purchases)
• employing coaches or specialist teachers to cover planning preparation and assessment (PPA) arrangements
• to teach the existing PE curriculum (or, in the case of academies, to teach the existing PE curriculum) – apart from top-up swimming and water safety lessons after pupils’ completion of core lessons – teaching of the curriculum should be funded through a school’s core funding.
• the purchase of services or goods that will be delivered or used in following academic years (this includes the payment of invoices or subscriptions in advance)
• the purchase of staff PE kit

Staff salaries are not considered as falling within the scope of additional or sustainable improvement. For example using your premium funding allocation to:

• employ someone whose role is to specifically administer the PE and sport premium grant
• employ someone that is responsible for arranging and running PE, sport or activity sessions
• cover teaching during the school day
• fund the cost of a teaching assistant or apprentice to deliver PE lessons, sport or physical activities instead of teaching staff during the school day

4.2 Digital expenditure reporting return

All schools must complete the digital expenditure reporting return outlining how the school has used the PE and sport premium grant and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding.

Each qualifying school in a multi-academy trust (MAT) must complete the return.

The return will become accessible to schools in June 2027 and must be completed by 5pm on 31 July 2027.

Following its submission, schools will also have the option of downloading copies of the return to meet PE and sport premium grant reporting requirements.

The information that will need to be entered onto the return includes:

• confirmation of the school’s premium allocation
• figures on the overall spend
• what the funding has been spent on
• whether there is any unspent funding
• swimming and water safety attainment

4.3 Publishing a report

A school must publish on its website a report detailing how it has spent its premium by 31 July 2027.

If a school chooses to download a copy of its digital expenditure reporting return and use this as its published report, it must ensure that prior to publishing the digital expenditure reporting return meets accessibility requirements. 

In the case of a MAT which may include several primary schools, the PE and sport premium grant allocated to each individual school may be pooled into a consolidated fund. This collective allocation will be used to support PE and sport provision across all schools within the trust, ensuring equitable benefit and strategic deployment of resources. Each individual recipient school will be required to publish a report on its website detailing how it has spent its premium. A MAT cannot publish a single document to cover all schools.  

The published report must include:

• the amount of PE and sport premium grant funding received
• a full breakdown of how it has been spent
• the impact seen by the school on pupils’ participation and attainment in PE and sport
• how this improvement will be sustained

The report must also contain details on the percentage of pupils in year 6 who have met the national curriculum requirements to:

• swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• use a range of strokes effectively – for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke
• perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

4.4 Capital expenditure

The PE and sport premium grant cannot be used for capital expenditure; it can only be used for revenue expenditure.

Capital expenditure for the purposes of this grant funding is defined as:

• buying a tangible or intangible asset
• expenditure which adds to or enhances the value of an existing asset

If you are unsure whether a particular cost can be classified as revenue expenditure, seek professional advice. DfE cannot provide individual advice on the classification of expenditure. Further explanation of capital expenditure is included in the associated guidance. If the spending triggers asset recognition for the school under the school/local authority/trust’s local accounting policy, then the spending will not be eligible to be funded through this grant.

Use of the PE and sport premium grant for revenue maintenance costs associated with existing assets is permitted in certain circumstances. For example, repainting lines on a playground is allowable, as the playground is an existing asset and the expenditure constitutes routine maintenance rather than capital investment.

4.5 Carry forward funding

Funds must not be carried forward past 31 July 2027.

5. More information

The financial accounts and any 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.

Local authorities, schools and settings must provide information as may be required by the Secretary of State to determine whether they have complied with these conditions. Failure to provide this information may result in the Secretary of State requiring the recovery of the whole or any part of the PE and sport premium grant paid to the local authority or setting, or the withholding of subsequent instalments of the PE and sport premium grant.

6. Variation

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

7. Recovery of funding

If a local authority, school or proprietor of an academy fails to comply with the terms and conditions set out in this document, the Secretary of State may require the school to repay all or any part of the PE and sport premium grant funding paid.

Schools or local authorities will be notified in writing if a recovery was to be made.

The recipient must notify DfE 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.

8. Overpayments

If a school, local authority or academy proprietor identifies that it has been overpaid, it must contact DfE to arrange recovery of the excess. Where the department identifies an overpayment, it may seek to recover the excess. The local authority or school will be notified of this in writing if this was going to happen.

9. Enquiries

For questions relating to these terms and conditions, contact PE.PREMIUM@education.gov.uk