Following the Budget, schools can spend this additional £400 million on capital projects to meet their own priorities.
This may include improvements to buildings, equipment and other facilities, such as investing in IT infrastructure, small scale enhancement to buildings or renovations to sports facilities or equipment.
By December, the Government will share an online calculator so that schools can estimate their allocation and make plans to spend the money, and Ministers will then publish individual allocations in January.
An average size primary school will receive £10,000 and an average size secondary school, £50,000. The amounts cannot be ‘top sliced’ by local authorities.
The funding will be made available to: maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools, academies and free schools, special schools, pupil referral units, non-maintained special schools and sixth form colleges. It will also be allocated to those specialist post-16 institutions that have eligible state-funded pupils.
This funding is in addition to the £1.4 billion of condition allocations already provided this year to those responsible for maintaining school buildings. Overall, we are investing £23 billion in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21.
Steve Brine said: “I have been in close touch with all primary and secondary schools before the Budget, and that evening, as well as subsequently, and I am pleased with this news.”