Guidance

Primary PE and sport premium grant expenditure: instructions for completing the reporting and assurance form

Updated 26 June 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

Schools must use the PE and sport premium to make additional and sustainable improvements to the PE, sport and physical activity they provide, in accordance with the terms outlined in the conditions of grant and PE and sport premium guidance. This means schools may use the PE and sport premium to:

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

This guidance should help you complete your PE and sport premium grant funding assurance form. If you need more help with completing your returns, contact us via the customer help portal.

When to complete your submission

The deadline for submitting the PE and sport premium grant funding assurance form is 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2026. You can change and resubmit your return up until this time.

Accessing the form

Read this guidance before accessing the PE and sport grant spending assurance digital form to complete your return.

Before you start

Make sure you have:

• an active DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your organisation - if you have not used DfE sign-in before, you’ll need to create an account

• total grant spending for:
  • continuing professional development (CPD)
  • upskilling for swimming
  • extra-curricular, equipment and resources
  • memberships
  • School Games Organiser network
  • external sport competitions and external coaching staff
  • other
• information about funding which has been targeted to any specific group of pupils such as:
  • special education needs and disability (SEND)
  • long-term medical conditions
  • girls
  • disadvantaged
• aspirations for targeted support from the new PE and School Sport Partnerships Network
• swimming attainment, self rescue, spending and impact

DfE Sign-in

This form is accessed via DfE Sign-in. If your school has undergone an academy conversion, a change of academy trust, or any other estate change (for example, a merger) since April 2026, you must access the form using a DfE Sign-in account associated with the school’s former details.

If you need to update the email address on your DfE Sign-in account, you can find guidance on how to change the email address on your DfE Sign-in account. You do not need to create a new account.

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

Follow the below steps to access the form via your DfE Sign-in account:

1. Access the  PE and sport grant spending assurance digital form and click ‘Start now’. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.
2. If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled on your account, you will need to enter a verification code to login. To send the verification email with the code you need to click on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity page’ you were directed to after entering your email and password.
3. After clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ you will progress to the next page ‘Enter code’. Copy the code from the verification email and paste it into the box. Then select ‘Verify’.
4. Choose the organisation you are completing the form for (this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations).
5. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the: name, address and unique identifier of the organisation, and the name and email address of the person who signed into the form.
6. If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page. If you believe these details are incorrect, contact us via the customer help portal and we will investigate. However, you can still proceed with your submission.

To complete the form, your account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in. It is used only for authentication.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account 

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, you will need to create one by completing steps 1 to 7: 

1. Access the DfE Sign-in page and select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’.
2. Enter your email address. You must use a valid business email address that contains your name – we are unable to accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’. You are also unable to use a personal email address.
3. We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
4. Create a memorable password that is a minimum of 8 characters and contains 3 lowercase and uppercase characters and number symbols. Enter your first and last name.
5. Sign in using your new credentials. Request your MFA verification email by clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity’ page.
6. We will send you an MFA email to verify your identity. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
7. Follow the next step instructions outlined in ‘Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account’.

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account

To add a new organisation to your DfE Sign-in account, follow steps 1 to 6:

1. Login to your DfE Sign-in account.
2. Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.
3. Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.
4. Enter the name of the organisation you wish to add.
5. Select the organisation.
6. Select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to the approvers for your organisation. If you do not already have an approver your request will be actioned by the DfE Sign-in help service team.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined to sign in to your DfE Sign-in account to complete the form.

You may have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager. For security reasons, you will need one of your organisation’s approvers authorisation before you can access the form.

If you need further assistance

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, use our DfE Sign-in help service where you will be able to request further assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘Other.’

If you are having problems accessing the form, you can contact us via the customer help portal.

Completing the form 

Access the PE and sport grant spending assurance digital form and select ‘Start now’. When authenticated through DfE sign-in, you will find a ‘save and continue’ button on each page of the form. If you have to sign out of the form, or your form is opened for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in.

Once you have submitted the form, you will be advised of the next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission. This email will contain a link to download a PDF copy of your submission – the link will expire after 6 months. We recommend you download a copy as soon as possible.

You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline. 

Selecting ‘save and continue’ on each page will take you through the form. You must click ‘submit’ on the final form page to send your completed submission to us. 

Your details

We will show you the information we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into your DfE Sign-in account. 

Your school funding allocation for academic year for 2025 to 2026

This section relates to your PE and sport premium expenditure report.

Consult the PE and sport premium conditions of grant as necessary. You will be asked to confirm if:

• your total amount for the PE and sport premium grant for academic year 2025 to 2026 is correct
• you have any unspent funding from your allocation at the end of academic year 2025 to 2026

How has your school spent its PE and sport premium grant funding

You will be asked several questions on how your school has spent its PE and sport premium funding: This will include:

• total grant spending for:
  • CPD
  • upskilling for swimming
  • extra-curricular, equipment and resources
  • memberships
  • School Games Organiser network
  • external sport competitions and external coaching staff
• funding has been targeted to any specific group of pupils such as:
  • SEND
  • long-term medical conditions
  • girls
  • disadvantaged

PE and School Sport Partnerships Network

You will be asked:

• about your school’s aspirations for targeted support from this new network
• if you are content for the contents of this collection to be shared with the national delivery partner

Swimming and water safety

Enter your answers in percentage for attainment, stroke range and self-rescue.

You answer must be a number between zero (0) and 100

You will be asked:

• about how much your school has spent on internal top-swimming lessons or broadening aquatic opportunities
• to assess the impact of your school funding spent on swimming and water safety attainment

Declarations page

Once you have completed relevant data entries you must complete all declarations before you can submit your form. You will not be able to submit the form without fully completing this section. 

You will not be able to submit your form without agreeing to the declarations. To do this, you will need to tick each statement box to confirm your agreement. 

Submission summary

The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting your form. 

You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You can save a breakdown of the information entered in the form by clicking the ‘Save Summary as PDF’ button before you submit.

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page and receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed. 

Confirmation 

The final page confirms your form has been submitted successfully. You will receive a unique reference number against your submission, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

You will also receive an email confirming successful submission. This email will contain a link to download a PDF copy of your submission, which is valid for 6 months from the date of your submission. You are strongly recommended to download and keep a copy.

Make a note of your unique reference number as we will not include this information in your confirmation email.

Amending your submission

You can make changes to the form and resubmit until 5pm on Wednesday 30 September  2026. To do this, you will need to sign in and resubmit the form. 

You will be unable to amend your data after the submission deadline. We will use data input from your latest submission and disregard any previous submissions. 

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.

If you need further assistance  

If you have read this guidance and have further questions, contact us using the customer help portal.