School Funding: National Insurance Contributions Grant and Pupil Premium
- Today the Department for Education has confirmed national insurance contributions 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 six years
£1,515
Secondary pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past six 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 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium[HCWS532]