Statement
Today the Department for Education has confirmed National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Grant funding rates and schools’ pupil premium funding rates for the financial year 2025-26.
The NICs Grant will provide schools, colleges, and high needs settings with over £1 billion to support them with the increases to employer National Insurance contributions from April 2025, broken down as set out in the table below.
Setting/phase | NICs Grant funding in 2025-26 |
Mainstream (5-16) schools and academies | £786 million |
High needs settings | £125 million |
Local authority centrally employed teachers | £22 million |
Post-16 providers | £155 million |
Early years providers | £25 million |
Despite the challenging economic context, core funding for schools was prioritised in the Budget, and the NICs support is additional to the £2.3 billion increase announced in October. This means that the core schools budget will total over £64.8 billion in 2025-26.
Further information can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-contributions-nics-grant-and-early-years-national-insurance-contributions-ey-nics-grant-for-2025-to-2026
The pupil premium grant provides additional funding to schools to support disadvantaged pupils so that they achieve and thrive in education. Total pupil premium funding will rise to over £3 billion in 2025-26, an increase of almost 5% from 2024-25.
The pupil premium funding rates are increasing by 2.39% (and then rounded) compared to 2024-25 rates, in line with the forecast GDP deflator measure of inflation. The table below sets out the new pupil premium rates that will take effect from 1 April 2025.
| 2025-26 pupil premium rate |
Primary pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years | £1,515 |
Secondary pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years | £1,075 |
Children who are looked after by the local authority | £2,630 |
Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or other state care | £2,630 |
The grant also provides support for children and young people of service families, referred to as service pupil premium. The service pupil premium rate is also increasing by 2.39% (and then rounded) in 2025-26, to £350 per eligible pupil from 1 April 2025.
Further information can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium
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This statement has also been made in the House of Lords