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Schools will not receive dedicated funding for enrichment benchmarks, ����Vlog can reveal, despite the expectation that revamped extracurricular activities must be provided from September.

In the new academic year, the government’s enrichment benchmarks require schools to provide students with extracurricular activities across five categories.

Programmes and eligibility criteria for what the government is calling an enrichment “entitlement” are still being designed.

But the government has now confirmed that schools will not receive any specific funding for meeting the benchmarks.

One sector leader said the idea that schools can boost their provision without any additional investment is “astonishing”.

����Vlog can also reveal that a wider government enrichment pot will not be given directly to schools, and will instead go to external organisations.

The Department for Education, when asked by ����Vlog, confirmed that schools would not receive any additional funding to deliver the enrichment entitlement.

Concerns over funding and communication

The enrichment benchmarks set out that, from September, schools will be expected to provide activities across five categories: civic engagement; arts and culture; nature, outdoor and adventure; life and future skills; and sport and physical activities.

All enrichment offers must also align with , which include that the activities are “accessible and engaging” and “shaped by the school or college community”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that this is just “another example of schools being given an additional expectation to meet without any resources being made available to support them”.

“The idea that they can simply boost this provision without any additional investment is astonishing,” he said.

And added: “The way this policy has been communicated from the outset has been exceptionally poor, with schools given very little time to digest the benchmarks and very little support to help meet them.”

Fears that existing inequalities will widen

Meanwhile, ����Vlog also understands that the previously announced £132.5 million government funding pot for broader enrichment ambitions will not be directly provided to schools.

Instead, the funding pot - part of the programme - will be allocated to external supporting organisations.

Tom Middlehurst, deputy director of policy at ASCL, said that it is “disappointing” that the government’s enrichment entitlement is not supported by direct funding to schools.

“There is a risk that schools with existing relationships with these organisations will find it easier to access these increased opportunities, and schools already struggling to find external support won’t have the time or resource to look for new programmes or initiatives,” he told ����Vlog.

Mr Middlehurst said that to ensure a universal entitlement to enrichment, “this money would have been better spent by investing directly in schools and colleges”.

‘No capacity’ for schools to commission enrichment

Others in the sector have similarly criticised the handling of the enrichment entitlement, although they are pleased that Ofsted will no longer inspect schools against the enrichment benchmarks, as had been initially proposed.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, stressed that all schools should benefit from enrichment funding, rather than being made to apply for it.

“The government needs to be realistic that schools cannot be expected to take on additional responsibilities when it comes to enrichment without additional funding,” he said.

Mr Whiteman added: “There is simply not currently capacity within schools for them to be commissioning and coordinating extensive enrichment offers beyond what they already provide.”

Nearly all schools already offer some form of enrichment to their pupils, according to the .

However, half of teachers polled last year said that they would be unwilling to run an additional club outside classroom hours if there is no extra pay.

Mr Whiteman said: “Schools stand ready to support an enhanced enrichment offer, but they can only do so if the government provides them with the requisite tools; they cannot simply load more responsibility onto their staff.”

Success depends on consistency

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, welcomes the enrichment entitlement in principle, but warns that its success depends on consistency of approach.

“If this policy is to widen opportunity, it must be implemented equitably,” said Professor Elliot Major. “Schools serving disadvantaged communities, or those in rural and coastal areas, often face very different challenges in accessing enrichment providers.”

If these differences are not recognised, he warned of a “real risk that the schools already best connected to external organisations will benefit most, inadvertently widening existing inequalities”.

He added: “We need national ambition combined with regional solutions that reflect different local contexts and challenges. Otherwise, we risk creating another postcode lottery in access to opportunity.”

Professor Elliot Major suggested that the government should monitor not just how many enrichment activities are delivered, but also which pupils take part.

“If pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or rural communities are still missing out, the implementation needs to change,” he said.

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