7. Service Pupil Premium

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Service Pupil Premium

The below information is taken from the Ministry of Defence guidance material Service Pupil Premium: what you need to know from the government website. Please do visit the guidance material for further information of current changes that may not be captured below.

Overview of the Service pupil Premium

The Service Pupil Premium was introduced by the Department for Education in April 2011 as part of its commitment to deliver the Armed Forces Covenant and in recognition of the specific challenges children from Service families can face.

State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of Service families in school years Reception to Year 11, can receive the funding which is currently £335 per Service child who meets the current eligibility criteria. Money is paid directly to the school for the total number of Service children and not specifically allocated to individual children.

The Service Pupil Premium differs from the Pupil Premium as it is intended for schools to provide mainly pastoral support and to help mitigate the negative impact on Service children of family mobility or parental deployment.

Mobility is when a Service family is posted from one location to another, including overseas and within the UK.

Deployment is when a Service person is serving away from home for a period of time. This could be a 6 to 9-month tour of duty, a training course or an exercise which could last for a few weeks.

Schools should not combine this funding with the main Pupil Premium and it should be accounted for separately.

To attract the funding, children need to be flagged as a Service child ahead of the October school census deadline, it cannot be claimed retrospectively.

Parents need to make the school aware that they or their partner serve within the Forces.

Eligibility criteria

Currently a child is eligible for Service Pupil Premium if they meet one of the following criteria:

  • One of their parents is serving in the Regular Armed Forces (including pupils with a parent who is on Full Commitment as part of the Full Time Reserve Service)

  • They have been registered as a ‘Service child’ on the school census in the past six years, see note on the DfE’s ever 6 Service child measure*

  • One of their parents died whilst serving in the Armed Forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme

  • One of their parents is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England

*Ever 6 service child measure

The premium was extended, such that any pupil in Reception to Year 11, who has been flagged as a Service child in the last six years, will continue to receive the premium (Ever 6 service child). Please see the Education & Skills Funding Agency pupil premium grant guidance for more information.

Ex Service personnel should tell the school if they left the armed forces within the last six years. Under the DfE’s ever measure, schools will continue to receive SPP for up to six years for children whose parent(s) left the armed forces, provided the children were recorded as Service children in a school census (prior to their parent(s) leaving the forces). The ever measure also applies when Service parents divorce or separate or when a Service parent dies in service.

Further information on the Service Pupil Premium and current eligibility criteria

Page last reviewed: 11/03/2024

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