Trust leadership teams have to decide on the best way of supporting those pupils that need additional help in order to make up for their lost educational opportunities. The SLT grant is ring-fenced and must only be used to fund the staff costs of delivering tuition such as training teaching staff, sourcing local tutors or by contracting with an online tutoring provider. The focus is on supporting disadvantaged pupils, which primarily means those pupils who are eligible for pupil premium, but could also include pupils with other additional needs, and this is at the discretion of the trust.
The SLT grant is paid in addition to existing grants, such as pupil premium, and does not replace them. For 2021 -2022 the grant is calculated to cover 75% of the cost of the extra tuition, with the balance being met by the trust out of their other grant income. The grant will continue in future years but the % will fall to 60% in 2022-2023 and to 25% in 2023-2024. As the amount of funding falls, trusts will have to budget carefully to ensure that their ongoing costs are covered from other grant income.
For the first two terms of the current academic year trusts received the SLT grant for 60% of their pupils that were eligible for pupil premium. Payments were made in October 2021 and January 2022. For the final term, funding was increased to 76% of eligible pupils in years 1 to 11 and paid in May 2022.
If all the grant money has not been spent by the end of the academic year the DfE will treat the underspend as an overpayment and reclaim the funding by a deduction from grant payments in December. The 2021-2022 grant cannot be carried forward by trusts to be spent in 2022-2023.
Academy trusts have to keep a record of payments made in relation to the SLT grant and complete a year-end statement giving details of pupil numbers, hours and spend. The statement should only be completed once all associated tutoring has been provided and this may include tutoring provided over the summer holidays.
The form is now live and there is detailed guidance on its completion on the DfE website. The form must be submitted by the 16th of September. If the year-end statement is not received the DfE will assume that no tutoring was provided by the trust and reclaim the full amount.
During the upcoming audit season trusts should expect their auditors to ask about the SLT grant and for details of how it has been spent to ensure that the money has been used for the purpose intended. If there is an underspend at 31 August 2022 the auditors will discuss how to reflect the refund to the DfE in the statutory accounts.
The next step
For further information or support, please contact Liz Searby or your usual UHY adviser.
