Understand the legal requirements
Schools and trusts must consider the needs and challenges faced by the children of serving and former armed services personnel. This is set out in the Armed Forces Covenant Duty.
The Department for Education (DfE)’s definition of service pupils is primarily for allocating the service pupil premium (SPP) funding. The SPP, outlined below, is additional funding to help your school fulfil the above requirement.
But when planning provision under the Armed Forces Covenant Duty, your school needs to consider all children from armed forces families – not just those in the DfE school census.
The DfE's non-statutory guidance on service pupils in schools explains how schools and local authorities (LAs) should provide support to service pupils with their education and wellbeing. We cover this in more detail in the sections below.
Service pupil premium (SPP) funding
A child is eligible for the SPP for