Free breakfast clubs grant 2025 to 2026 academic year

This guidance is for:   

• local authorities   

• school leaders   

• school teachers   

• governing bodies and their representatives  

The government has committed to offering a free and universal breakfast club in every primary school.

The documents above set out the grant conditions and methodology which will cover the national roll out of this funding commencing from April 2026.

Conditions of grant  

This guidance sets out the terms and conditions applied to the funding for eligible institutions that are delivering a free breakfast club as of April 2026.

Methodology   

This guidance will help schools and local authorities understand how the grant is calculated for April 2026 to July 2026 and how it will be paid.  

Payments and allocations  

Payments will be made in multiple phases: 

• we will publish allocations for the fixed payment and start-up grant which will be made at the end of May 2026 for local authorities and beginning of June 2026 for academies. This will also contain the arrears payment for spring term for schools from the early adopter scheme

• a further payment in arrears will be made at the end of October 2026 for local authorities and beginning of November 2026 for academies. This will also contain the upfront payment for the autumn term in the next grant period

Further details   

If schools have any questions about delivering their breakfast club, please reach out to us via the programme’s help portal.

Further information is also available in our guidance for [breakfast clubs early adopters grant 2025 to 2026}(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/breakfast-club-early-adopters-grant-2024-to-2025-academic-year)