Released January 2023

Young people aged 16-19 are set to benefit from £125 million in funding towards accessing high-quality courses including T Levels, A Levels and other vocational qualifications.

The funding aims to benefit key areas including engineering, construction and digital subjects.

More info can be found here.

Released July 2023

In July 2023, the government announced they would be investing £185 million in 2023-24, and later £285 million in 2024-25, to help accelerate skills delivery in the further education sector.

This funding was on top of the £125 million investment into 16 to 19 education in the 2023-24 financial year.

More info can be found here.

Announced March 2023

The government has announced they will be investing £2.5 billion to improve and upgrade school and college buildings. These refurbishments will take place from 2026.

Further announcements included:

An investment of £1.8 billion for the 2023-24 financial year to improving the condition of school buildings and grounds.

An additional £487 million to help councils provide more school spaces for September 2026.

The last phase of the education capital transformation programme is underway (an investment of £1.5 billion into improving FE buildings and campuses).

More info can be found here.

Press Release June 2023

Music Hubs are set to receive £25 million from September 2024 to help provide a wide range of instruments, including traditional instruments and adapted instruments (designed to support SEND learners) for children and young people.

More info can be found here.

Government guidance July 2023

The Energy Bills Relief Scheme which was available for schools to access between October 2022 and March 2023 has now been replaced by the Energy Bills Discount Scheme.

This scheme will run until March 2024, but only schools paying the highest amounts on energy bills will benefit.

More info can be found here.

Government news story October 2023

Schools, hospitals, and other public buildings can bid for a share of £230 million to install low-carbon heating and energy efficient solutions.

So far, over 1,000 public buildings have received upgrades, enabling them to save on the cost of energy bills, reduce carbon emissions and cut down their energy usage.

More info can be found here.

Announced September 2023

The next phase of the language hubs programme is underway, and 19 schools have been chosen to lead on improving the language provision in schools across the country.

More info can be found here.

Updates October 2023

Schools can still access the Senior Mental Health Lead grant (£1,200) which first became available in 2021.

14,000 schools have accessed the grant so far to train a senior mental health lead. And schools can now access a second grant of up to £1,200 if their senior mental health lead no longer works at the school. This second grant will ensure schools have the funds to train another member of staff.

To support the wellbeing of University students, the government has requested £15 million to be allocated by the Office for Students towards student mental health.

More info can be found here.

COVID-19 Recovery Premium updates March 2023

As part of the government’s initiatives to support education recovery following the pandemic, they set up the Recovery Premium Grant.

This is a time-limited grant of over £300 million that state schools can access across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.

The grant is specifically to support pupils who are eligible for pupil premium, as well as pupils in special schools, special units and pupil referral units.

More info can be found here.

Government Guidance published May 2023

The government has set a target for all education establishments to have a nominated sustainability lead by 2025, and for them to have implemented a climate action plan.

There are 4 key areas for the climate action plans to cover, including decarbonisation, adaptation and resilience, biodiversity, and climate education and green careers.

More info can be found here.

Government announcement July 2023

To encourage young people to learn about the natural world, the DfE has made available a £15 million grant for eligible education settings.

The funding can be used for outdoor education equipment, fieldwork equipment, support from contractors, trees, planters and more.

More info can be found here.

Government Paper updated December 2023

Alongside other plans, the government has set out a target to start rolling out carbon literacy training to at least one member of staff in every locally maintained nursery, school, college and university from December 2023.

More info can be found here.

Government update June 2023

A total sum of £200 million funding is available for the Connect The Classroom programme, set up to upgrade wifi networks in schools across the UK. The programme will be running until 2025.

The schools eligible are those that are either in education investment areas with an Ofsted rating of ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’, or those that are in a priority education investment area.

Eligible schools have been contacted by the government, and schools who think they’re eligible but haven’t been contacted are being encouraged to get in touch.

More info can be found here.

Announced August 2023

The government has increased the amount of high needs funding by an extra £440 million in 2024-2025, an increase which brings the total funding in this area to £10.5 billion.

There are currently 83 special schools planning to open across the UK, and an additional 7 new special schools will be built according to the government’s latest update.

This investment, backed by £70 million, will increase the number of places in special free schools from around 8,500 to 19,000 once finalised.

More info can be found here.

Funding allocated October 2023

The government has allocated £600m in funding to help with teacher recruitment and retention, and ensure more students pass their maths and English GCSEs.

More info can be found here.

Government news story February 2022

The government is supporting schools in England with reducing their carbon footprint through the help of insurance experts at the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD).

The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) provides schools and academies with cover if any losses arise due to any unforeseen events. RPA acts as an alternative to insurance where the government will cover the costs instead of commercial insurance.

The DfE is also considering measures to decarbonise schools, including replacing gas, oil and coal boilers with heat pumps.

More info can be found here.

White Paper released March 2022

Plans for every child to have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

To ensure 90% of children leaving primary school in England achieve the expected standard in reading, writing, and maths by 2030.

To help reach the targets, the government has allocated at least £100 million to support the Education Endowment Foundation to evaluate and spread best practice in education.

Funding to increase starting salaries to £30,000 to attract and retain the best teachers.

£86 million to grow and strengthen multi-academy trusts over the next 3 years.

An additional £40 million for bespoke interventions across a subset of the Education Investment Areas.

More info can be found here.

Press Release May 2022

The DfE has announced an additional £7 million for schools and colleges to help them train a senior mental health lead.

This will help provide pupils with access to mental health support, as well as aim to forge stronger links with local health services.

More info can be found here.

Press Release June 2022

The government has announced a multi-million-pound investment into sports and music education to encourage participation in related extracurricular activities.

£25 million is being given to schools to help them purchase musical instruments and equipment, with schools also being asked to offer at least 1 hour of music curriculum a week.

On top of this, £79 million will also be made available every year until 2025 for the Music Hubs programme.

Read more about this funding here.

Released October 2022

Primary schools across England will benefit from high quality phonics and literacy teaching thanks to a £24 million investment.

The programme aims to help pupils develop all-important reading and writing skills, and will work alongside other targeted support such as the National Tutoring Programme.

More info can be found here.

Released November 2022

Over the next 3 years, £14.9 million will be invested as part of a programme to boost the number of pupils studying modern foreign languages.

Language hubs will aim to ensure that pupils aged 14 to 18 from all backgrounds have the opportunity to study languages through to key stage 5.

More info can be found here.

Released December 2022

£500 million has been announced for energy efficiency upgrades in schools and colleges across England to not only help save on bills but also manage their energy consumption.

Estimates show that on average, a primary school will receive
approximately £16,000, a secondary school will get £42,000 and a further education college group will benefit from £290,000.

Improvements could include installing better heating controls, insulation to reduce heat loss from pipes or switching to energy efficient lighting.

More info can be found here.

Press Release March 2022

The government has announced a £150 million fund to upgrade WiFi connections in schools who need it the most.

They also committed to make sure all schools have access to
high-speed internet by 2025.

More info can be found here.

Press Release July 2022

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Department for Education (DfE) have invested a joint £82 million into providing full fibre broadband to schools in rural areas. This funding will be available for up to 3,000 eligible schools over the next 3 years.

More info can be found here.

Green Paper released March 2022

Plans to reform the national system for children with special education needs and disabilities opened for a 13 week public consultation.

The proposals are backed by £70 million worth of funding.

This is in addition to the £9 billion high needs funding for 2022-23 and £2.6 billion for new school places for children with SEND over the next 3 years.

Capital funding worth £1.4 billion has been announced to help councils pay for new places and improve provision for children with SEND, in advance of any new legislation from the green paper consultation.

Over £10 million will be used to train 200 more educational psychologists from September 2023.

Children in care will benefit from a £16.6 million Virtual School Head (VSH) fund in the 2022-23 financial year.

This fund will promote the needs of looked-after children and support their academic attainment.

More info can be found here.

Announced November 2022

The Education Secretary announced plans to invest £21 million into training 400 more educational psychologists to provide more support for children with SEND.

There are also plans to extend a training programme for teachers on how to use assistive technology to 150 more schools.

More info can be found here.

Released May 2022

The government has announced a £60 million investment to provide high-quality STEM teaching in schools. This funding will benefit pupils in the most disadvantaged schools and is designed to attract and retain highly skilled teachers.

Eligible teachers will receive a £9,000 bonus over 3 years if they work in disadvantaged schools.

More info can be found here.

Press Release September 2022

In 2022, the government announced they would be investing an additional £66 million into the Accelerator Fund for the following 3 academic years, to help provide more schools with access to high-quality literacy and numeracy programmes.

More info can be found here.

Released November 2022

The quality of maths teaching in schools is set to be boosted with the help of a £59.3 million investment, aimed at ensuring every child has a foundation of necessary maths before they leave school.

The funding will also support the continuation of the maths hub programme which helps schools and colleges improve mathematics education.

More info can be found here.

Released December 2022

£200 million has been announced for 2023 to help hundreds of thousands of children from low income families across England access free sessions including nutritious food and engaging activities over the school holidays.

This is to support children’s mental, physical and social development and is part of the government’s commitment to help vulnerable families with rising costs.

More info can be found here.

Press Release December 2022

The government has announced plans to transform an additional 239 schools across England, in addition to the 161 already announced, as part of the government’s ten-year school rebuilding programme.

As part of this programme, all new school buildings built will be net-zero in operation, helping to meet the government’s net-zero target.

More info can be found here.

Funding announced May 2021

The government has announced a £17 million mental health grant to offer better support and advice in schools.

This includes a fixed grant of £1,200 to eligible state-funded schools in the 2022-23 financial year. This grant will cover or contribute to the costs of training a member of staff to become the senior mental health lead.

More info can be found here.

Announced summer and autumn 2021

The government released £10 million to help pupils in primary and secondary schools catch up in core subjects.

An additional £2 billion was allocated to further help pupils to recover lost learning in the Autumn Budget 2021.

The government provided a £153 million fund to strengthen early years teaching and address the impact of the pandemic on the youngest children, with a focus on the most disadvantaged areas of England.

The government’s direct investment in education recovery is now at almost £5 billion. This will support high-quality tutoring for millions of pupils and world-class training for thousands of teachers and early years staff.

More info can be found here.

Investments announced June 2021

The government has announced they will be investing £483 million into upgrading school buildings as part of an initiative to improve school facilities.

More info can be found here.

Expansion announced November 2021

The government introduced the National Tutoring Programme in November 2020 to help pupils catch up on missed learning.

In November 2021, they committed to expanding their education recovery programme by providing an extra £1 billion over the next 3 years.

Read more about this funding here.