Service Children

State schools, academies and free schools in England with children of service families (reception age to Year 11) are eligible for Service Pupil Premium (SPP) funding 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) or is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England and they have been registered as a ‘service child’ in the most recent autumn DfE school census

• They have been registered as a ‘service child’ on a DFE school census in the past 6 years

• 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

Service personnel with children in state schools in England (reception age to year 11) should notify schools of their children’s service status so they are recorded before the autumn census (which takes place on the first Thursday in October) to qualify for service pupil premium (SPP).

DFE’s Ever 6 service child measure - The premium was extended so that any pupil in reception to year 11 who has been flagged as a service child in the past 6 years will continue to receive the premium.

Under the DfE’s ‘Ever’ measure, schools will continue to receive SPP for up to 6 years for children whose parent left the armed forces, provided the children were recorded as service children in a school census prior to their parent leaving the forces. The Ever measure also applies when service parents divorce or separate or when a service parent dies in service.

Schools have flexibility over how they use the SPP and it can enable them to offer pastoral support to service pupils to help with family mobility, separation and deployment.

Service Pupil Premium: what you need to know - GOV.UK

For further support with how to use Service Pupil Premium see our resource toolkit which has a section with linked examples of how it can be used in schools.