There have been two significant funding announcements made this week (commencing 29 June 2026).
These are the headlines, however we anticipate much more detail will be available in the next week and we will be considering the implications for schools and colleges in our webinar
Pay and Conditions: What leaders need to know on 9 July.
Further information on the publication of the STRB's 36th Report and the written response to it is
available here.
Revenue funding for 2026 -2028
An additional £1.8 billion is being provided over the next two years to support schools with overall costs including teachers and support staff pay awards. This includes money for early years, mainstream schools (including sixth forms) and high needs providers. The
DfE has published a blog which includes a breakdown of how the government expects staff pay awards to be funded in 2026 and 2027.
As was the case last year schools will be expected to find 1% from savings and 0.8% ( 1.7% in 2025) from the uplift in existing budgets allocated as part of the 2025 spending review. We understand that the additional funding will be distributed via a School Budget Support Grant (SBSG) for schools pre-16 alongside early years and post-16 grant mechanisms. These are the national figures and we know that at individual school level the impact of these expectations will vary enormously.
An additional £365 million is being made available over the next two years to support FE providers.
Adjustments relating to teachers' pension contributions for employers
The recent valuation of the Teachers' Pension Scheme has resulted in employer contributions reducing from April 2027. Public sector pensions are intended to be cost neutral at provider level and therefore we must expect funding to be reduced accordingly.
In recent years we have seen additional funding from HMT when employer contributions have risen. We await more detail on how the reductions will be calculated at organisational level.