DfE Increases PE and Sport Premium Transition Funding to £150m!

The Department for Education has just announced a huge update to PE and Sport Premium funding, and it's good news for schools worried about what happens once current funding runs out!

On 9th July 2026, the DfE confirmed it is increasing the one-off transition payment for the 2026/27 academic year from £100m to £150m, following concerns raised by school leaders. Here's a quick breakdown of what's been announced, and what's still to come.

What's Actually Changing: A Quick Summary

The DfE has confirmed an uplift to the one-off PE and School Sport transition payment, taking the total funding pot from £100m to £150m for the 2026/27 academic year. This funding sits alongside the new PE and School Sport funding, which is being introduced to support schools through the transition period.

As you might remember, the Department of Education announced back in May 2026 that the primary PE and Sport Premium Funding would be getting replaced with the new partnership network, the PE and School Partnerships Network. One of the key differences between these two funding schemes is that the Partnership Network would arrive with roughly 22% less funding than Sports Premium.

To try and bridge this gap in funding, the May announcement also included the news that a one-off £100 million transition payment would be put in place to help support schools and strengthen their finances.

Due to the sudden announcement, school leaders across the country raised concerns about the last-minute nature of this move (as many schools had already worked out their core budgets for 2026-27 without knowing what transitional funding they would get).

As of 9th July 2026, the Department of Education responded to the concerns regarding the transition to the new Partnership Network by increasing the transitional payment pot from £100 million to £150 million, and have also pushed back the start of the new network from January to April 2027 to give schools more breathing room.

It's important to note that this announcement DOES NOT mean another year of Sports Premium will be occurring. The DfE has explicitly stated that they remain focused on establishing the new PE and School Partnership Network, but they want to support schools the best way they can!

How Much Funding Is Now Available

The DfE has increased the transition funding pot for primary schools by 50%, from £100 million to £150 million, for the 2026/27 academic year. With this uplift, eligible schools can expect to receive a median average of approximately £8,000 as a one-off payment.

Under the original £100m announcement, schools weren't given any indication of what they'd individually receive, which caused a major source of frustration for school leaders who were already midway through budget planning without a figure to work with. This £150m uplift is the first time the DfE has put a concrete median figure against it.

It's worth remembering that £8,000 is a median average, not a guaranteed amount! Actual allocations will vary from school to school once the DfE publishes the full funding formula, expected alongside the updated guidance and Conditions of Grant in September.

When Schools Will Receive It

The one-off transition payment will be made available to eligible schools in autumn 2026. Once received, schools can spend it at any point across the full 2026/27 academic year, as it isn't tied to a single term or a tight spending window like the current Premium's 31st July deadline.

It's also worth understanding how this timing lines up with the new school sport partnerships network itself. The network will begin working with schools from January 2027 to get up and running, with full delivery of support starting from April 2027.

That means there's a genuine gap between receiving the transition payment in autumn and the new network becoming fully active in spring 2027. It's important to note that schools don't need to wait for the network to start before using this funding, as the transition payment is designed to be spent independently, giving schools flexibility to maintain and make improvements to PE and sport provision through that gap rather than pausing activity until the network takes over.

What We Still Don't Know

While this update gives schools more clarity than the original May announcement, there's still a fair amount left to be confirmed. The DfE has set out a rough timeline for when the remaining details will land:

• September 2026: updated guidance, the full funding formula, and a new Conditions of Grant document will be published, in line with how this information is normally released each year
• October 2026: individual school allocations will be published, so schools will finally know their exact figure rather than the median £8,000 estimate
• November 2026: a national delivery partner for the new partnerships network will be appointed

Until these are published, some genuinely important questions remain open: what the funding can and can't be spent on, how eligibility will work for schools in different circumstances, and how the new partnerships network will actually operate day to day once it's live.

If you're planning ahead for 2026/27, it's worth treating the £8,000 median as a useful indicator rather than a number to budget against directly, as your school's actual allocation could be higher or lower once the formula is confirmed!

What This Means for Your Current Sports Premium Spending

It's important to be clear about what this announcement does and doesn't change. This update is about funding for the 2026/27 academic year. It has no effect on the PE and Sport Premium you currently hold for 2025 and 26.

That means the 31st July 2026 deadline still stands. Any remaining funding from your current allocation must still be spent, reported, and published by 5pm that day, exactly as originally planned. This announcement doesn't extend that deadline, and it doesn't mean unspent funding from this year can be rolled over or replaced by the new transition payment.

If you're still working out how to justify or spend your current Sports Premium budget before the deadline, our guides on justifying Sports Premium spending to governors and what you can buy with your remaining budget cover everything you need! You should treat this new funding as a separate, future consideration, and not a substitute for using what you have now.

We'll Update This Guide in September

The DfE has confirmed that updated guidance, the full funding formula, and a new Conditions of Grant document will all be published in September 2026, alongside individual school allocations in October. Once that detail lands, we'll update this article straight away with a full breakdown of what schools can actually spend the transition funding on, how eligibility works, and how it fits alongside the new partnerships network!

In the meantime, if you're navigating your current 2025/26 Sports Premium spending, our other guides can help you make the most of what you've got before the 31st July deadline!

Bookmark this page, or check back in September for the full picture of how this transition funding works. We'll see you then!