What is Service Pupil Premium
The Department for Education introduced the Service Pupil Premium in April 2011 in recognition of the specific challenges children from service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant.
State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of service families in school years reception to year 11, can receive the SPP funding. It is designed to assist the school in providing the additional support that these children may need and is currently worth £310 per service child who meets the eligibility criteria.
Eligibility criteria
Pupils attract SPP 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 a school census since 2016, 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
Children have to be flagged as service children ahead of the autumn school census deadline. Service parents need to make the school aware of their status by talking to the head teacher or school admin staff.
The purpose of the Service pupil premium
Eligible schools receive the SPP so that they can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times 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.
