On 27th September, the Department of Education published the allocations for September 2023 and timescales for grant payments of the Recovery Premium Grant (RP) for academic year 2023/24.
Local authorities also receive the RP grant for any eligible pupils in independent special schools where the local authority pays full tuition fees. Unfortunately, the guidance still states, “It is for the local authority to decide how much of this funding to pass on to the child’s school”.
For non-maintained special schools, academies and free schools the conditions of the grant document and the allocations database is available via the links below. These resources will provide a list of this year’s allocations, as well as the amount of the first payment due in September. Note that non-maintained special schools will receive the RP grant directly from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Please note that the estimated allocation is calculated based on census data from October 2022 and January 2023. Once new census data for October 2023/January 2024 is released, the estimated allocation will be updated for the June 2024 allocations. Ultimately, the total allocation a school receives will be three-quarters of the initial estimated amount, plus one-quarter of the updated allocation. Additionally, the September 2023 payment will be three-twelfths of the total allocation, rounded up to the nearest £1.
ESFA will pay RP grant to academies (including free schools) in quarterly instalments as follows:
- 9 October 2023
- 9 January 2023
- 9 April 2024
- 8 July 2024
ESFA will pay RP grant to non-maintained special schools in quarterly instalments as follows:
- November 2023
- December 2023
- March 2024
- June 2024
ESFA will pay RP grant to local authorities in quarterly instalments. However, we know even when LA do pass some of the grant onto ISS there is often quite a lag in getting anything through! The payments to LAs will be made as follows:
- 29 September 2023
- 29 December 2023
- 28 March 2024
- 28 June 2024
Further information can be found via the sources below:
COVID-19_Recovery_Premium_2023_to_2024_-_September_2023_-_allocations_-_v1.ods (live.com)