Guidance

Revenue funding: payments to academies

This guide explains how academies are paid and how to change bank details.

Applies to England

Introduction

Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is responsible for paying academies in accordance with the terms set out in the academy’s funding agreement. The general annual grant (GAG) is the name for an academy’s main revenue funding. We issue a monthly remittance note for each payment. The remittance is sent electronically to the academy’s nominated email address.

Remittance advice note

We’ve produced a brief guide to help academies understand their remittance advice note.

Pre-16 and 16 to 19 revenue funding

We fund academies on an academic year basis. We send the GAG payments via BACS to arrive in the academy’s nominated bank account on the first working day of each month. We distribute GAG funding in broadly equal instalments throughout the year. This ensures consistency across all state-funded schools. The first payment for the academic year is in September.

Our guidance on academies revenue funding allocations provides information on how we calculate an academy’s allocation.

Academy payment schedules can be found in the new ESFA Document exchange service. You can view your schedule by selecting ‘Documents you’ve received from ESFA’. If you require further support, please refer to the Document exchange user guide.

Academy payments schedule for main revenue funding streams 2023 to 2024

Revenue funding stream Grant type Frequency
Pre- and post-16 GAG funding Academic year Equal monthly instalments
Start up funding (SUG) A Academic year 3 front loaded instalments (proportioned as 50%/25%/25%)
Start up funding (SUG) B Academic year Equal monthly instalments
Post opening grant per pupil resources (POG PPR) Academic year 3 front loaded instalments (proportioned as 50% / 25% / 25%)
Post opening grant leadership diseconomies (POG LD) Academic year Equal monthly instalments
16 to 19 funding Academic year Equal monthly instalments
16 to 19 bursary funding Academic year 2 instalments: two-thirds in September and one-third in April
16 to 19 tuition funding Academic year Equal monthly instalments
Pupil premium Financial year 4 instalments: July and October payments for academies open as at the previous April, January payment extended to academies open to September and April payment extended to academies open to January. Academies who open in February and March are paid by the local authority for the full year
Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) Academic year 1 instalment: July (made up of prior year final and current year provisional payments)
PE and sports premium Academic year 2 instalments: November and May
Teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) Academic year 2 instalments: November and May

Pupil premium

Pupil premium is additional funding given to publicly-funded schools in England and provides funding for two policies:

  • raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and closing the gap with their peers
  • supporting children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces

We calculate pupil premium on a financial-year basis and pay in quarterly instalments. We’ll make payments in July, October, January and April.

We pay pupil premium grant separately to GAG payments.

You can find out more about how to use and account for the pupil premium in this guidance where you can also find links to the published allocations.

Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM)

All pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England are eligible for free school meals. This includes academies, free schools, pupil referral units and alternative provision, as well as maintained schools.

We’ve published the UIFSM conditions of grant and provisional allocations for 2023 to 2024. We expect to publish final allocations for 2023 to 2024 in June 2024.

PE and sport grant allocations

The PE and sport grant is additional funding given to publicly funded schools in England to improve physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools.

You can find further information in guidance on the PE and sport premium.

Teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG)

The teachers’ pension employer contribution grant covers the cost of the increase in the employer contribution of the Teachers Pension Scheme. You can find out more in this guidance.

From the 2023 to 2024 TPECG funding for early years has been rolled into the hourly rates for the early years entitlements funding for 3 and 4-year-olds. For maintained nursery schools, their share of the TPECG has been allocated through their supplementary funding.

For the full 2023 to 2024 financial year, we will continue to provide sixth forms and 16 to 19 schools with the TPECG, as they are not funded through their NFF or core allocations.

National Tutoring Programme (NTP)

The NTP provides eligible state-funded schools with funding to spend on targeted academic support, delivered by trained and experienced tutors and mentors. Local authorities also receive funding for looked after children (LACs) and children they have placed in independent special schools (ISSs).

Mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG)

In the 2023 to 2024 financial year, mainstream schools will be allocated additional funding through MSAG 2023 to 2024. This is in addition to schools’ allocations through the schools national funding formula.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery premium (RP)

Recovery premium (RP) grant provides additional funding for state-funded schools in England to support the education recovery of disadvantaged pupils following the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

We’ve published the RP conditions of grant and provisional allocations for 2023 to 2024. and expect to publish final allocations for 2023 to 2024 in June 2024.

Changes to bank details

If you wish to change the bank details held by ESFA for payment, please complete the academy bank details form.

Queries about payments

For any other queries about payments, please contact the ESFA enquiry service:

ESFA enquiries

For all enquiries for the Education and Skills Funding Agency

Published 11 March 2014
Last updated 27 September 2023 + show all updates
  1. We have added information about funding for the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

  2. Updated for 2022 to 2023

  3. 16 to 19 tuition funding detail added to payments schedule and links updated to guidance for 2021 to 2022

  4. We've updated this page to add up-to-date information for 2020 to 2021.

  5. We've updated this page with information for the 2018 to 2019 academic year.

  6. We've updated this for the 2017 to 2018 academic year

  7. Updated information and links to further guidance for the 2016 to 2017 academic year.

  8. Updated with 2015 to 2016 academic year information

  9. Year 7 catch-up premium link added

  10. Updates to universal infant free schools meals (UIFSM) and pupil premium sections added.

  11. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has published a new form for academies to use to notify EFA of any changes to their bank details.

  12. Information about PE and sport grant allocations revised

  13. Conditions of grant for UIFSM and pupil premium 2014 to 2015 payments added

  14. New email address added for academies changing their bank account details.

  15. Summer schools conditions of grant for the 2014 to 2015 academic year added.

  16. Updated payment dates, information added about pupil premium payments, universal infant free school meals (UIFSM), summer schools and PE and sport grant allocations.

  17. Updated to provide a link to the claim form for national non-domestic rates for 2014 to 2015

  18. First published.