The Department for Education has issued updated guidance for primary schools completing the PE and Sport Premium expenditure return for the 2025/26 academic year. The revised process puts more weight on transparency, accountability and evidencing the actual impact of the funding – so schools and trusts have more groundwork to do before submission.

The key deadline

Primary schools must submit a digital expenditure return by 5.00pm on 30 September 2026, via the DfE’s online reporting system. The return asks schools to set out how the funding was spent, what impact it had, and how any improvements will be sustained going forward. Schools can amend and resubmit right up until the deadline, so it’s worth treating the first submission as a working draft rather than a final version.

What the funding is for

The guidance reiterates that PE and Sport Premium funding must deliver additional, sustainable improvements to physical education, sport and physical activity – it can’t simply substitute for provision a school would have funded anyway. It also has to be spent within the academic year it’s allocated for.

A point for multi-academy trusts

Where a trust runs several eligible primary schools, each school must complete its own digital return and publish its own report – this isn’t something that can be handled once at trust level. Trusts can pool funding in some circumstances, but every individual school still needs to show, in its own submission, how its own pupils benefited.

What schools should be doing now

  • Check that expenditure has been recorded correctly against the required reporting categories throughout the year
  • Pull together evidence of the impact and sustainability of the activities funded
  • Make sure governors or trustees have reviewed the submission before it’s certified
  • Confirm the school website carries the required PE and Sport Premium report, as the grant conditions require

Good record-keeping matters here. As the reporting requirements get more detailed, having clear evidence to hand – both for the eligibility of spend and the outcomes it produced – will make it easier to satisfy governors, trustees and external auditors alike.

Need a hand with your return?

If you’d like to talk through your school or trust’s PE and Sport Premium reporting, get in touch with your usual UHY Williamson & Croft academy adviser.

Source: DfE — Primary PE and sport premium grant: expenditure and reporting guidance