Purpose

Recovery premium is part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by COVID-19.

It is a time-limited grant providing over £300 million of additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021/22 academic year and £1 billion across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years.

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Eligible schools

This includes Local authority-maintained schools such as ours.

Pupil eligibility

Recovery premium allocations for mainstream schools will be based on pupil premium eligibility. This includes:

• pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years, including eligible children of families who have no recourse to public funds.

• children looked after by local authorities, referred to as looked-after children.

• children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, referred to as previously looked-after children.

 

Funding rates for academic year 2023/24

Recovery premium allocations for academic year 2023/24 will be calculated on a per pupil basis, based on the following rates.

In mainstream education, the rates are:

• £145 per eligible pupil in primary schools

 

Funding paid to schools.

To ensure that recovery premium is focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils, schools must use their recovery premium (and pupil premium) in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by the Department for Education.

The menu of approaches can be found in ’Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders’.

The menu has been developed in line with the EEF’s 3-tiered approach to help schools allocate spending across the following 3 areas:

• supporting high-quality teaching, such as staff professional development

• providing targeted academic support, such as tutoring

• tackling non-academic barriers to academic success, such as difficulties with attendance, behaviour and social and emotional wellbeing

In line with the EEF’s recommended approach, schools should prioritise high-quality teaching, though the exact balance of spending between tiers will vary depending on the specific needs of pupils.

The menu includes tutoring, but recovery premium conditions of grant for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years state that schools must not use the grant to meet their portion of the costs of tuition provided through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP).

Recovery premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend recovery premium so that it solely benefits eligible pupils. Recovery premium can be used to support other pupils with identified needs, such as pupils who have or have had a social worker, or pupils who act as a carer. It can also be used for whole class interventions, for example high-quality teaching, which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils.

High attaining eligible pupils should receive just as much focus as lower attaining eligible pupils when it comes to spending funding. Evidence shows that eligible pupils who are among the highest performers at key stage 2 are more likely than their non-eligible peers to fall behind by key stage 4.

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Accountability

Schools must show they are using their recovery premium effectively:

• by publishing a statement on their website which presents an overview of their pupil premium and recovery premium strategy, and demonstrates that their use of the funding meets the requirements of the conditions of grant

• through inspections by Ofsted - inspectors may discuss plans schools have to spend their pupil premium and recovery premium funding

• through scrutiny of pupil premium and recovery premium plans by governors and trustees

• by declaring that they have spent the funding in line with the conditions of grant (including that it has not been spent on NTP) and can demonstrate this upon request

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See current Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2023/24 below