The Enhanced Programme Fund (EPF) was first offered in 2002 to help eligible schools enhance, refine or further develop programmes to support the learning for this group of students. The fund is contestable and is a supplementary grant that applies to groups of students (not individuals).
In 2005, the Ministry of Education commissioned an evaluation of EPF and this final report was presented in June 2006. It is a high level summary report of the evaluation work undertaken.
The evaluation concluded that schools that received EPF generally appeared to be using the funding to support the learning of students with lower achievement. The evaluation also concluded that there were some underlying issues with the way EPF was designed and implemented that prevented it from working as intended. The evaluation report findings are being used to inform the ongoing development of EPF.