£42m allocated to Priority Education Investment Areas
The government has announced that £42m will be allocated to Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIAs) - 24 areas of the country with high levels of disadvantaged pupils and low educational attainment, including Nottingham, Liverpool and Portsmouth.
The Local Needs Fund will be used to fund schools to access evidenced based programmes that will help boost pupils’ literacy, numeracy, and attendance.
The Priority Education Investment Areas boosts education in 'cold spots' round the country through a package of measures, including retaining good teachers in the areas and tackling attendance.
Measures also include moving struggling schools into strong multi-academy trusts.
A series of Trust Development Statements (TDS) have also been published for the first time. These statements set out the priorities in each Education Investment Area for developing a trust landscape led by high-quality trusts to transform standards locally and turn around underperforming schools.
This is backed by Trust Capacity Funding, a multi-year fund worth £86 million in 2022-2025 announced in the Schools White Paper that supports trusts to increase their capacity. The next round of funding will be open to new applications from 3 April. It is also supported by Trust Establishment and Growth Fund (TEG), which provides start-up funding for projects in their initial stages.
Read more
Latest News
23/04/2026 - 10:13
A survey of 1,105 teachers reveals many senior leaders reporting cuts to teaching assistants (71%), support staff (49%) and teaching staff (30%).
23/04/2026 - 09:30
A report from the Digital Poverty Alliance show that while digital tools are now embedded across school routines, access and usability remain deeply uneven.
22/04/2026 - 09:28
School food improvement programme Nourish is set to launch in Cumberland in 2026, working with schools to improve the quality and culture of food throughout the school day
21/04/2026 - 07:18
The government has announced a series of new measures aimed at strengthening freedom of speech and academic freedom across universities
20/04/2026 - 11:50
A creative careers programme which aims to inspire young people to explore careers across the creative industries has reached 210,000 young people since 2023.
