Please see below a response from an AFF’s Education and Childcare Specialist in regards to how schools can spend Service Pupil Premium (SPP)

“We receive a lot of enquiries from both families and schools around SPP and we are conscious that in some cases, both schools and families may come into conflict regarding how the money is spent, or could be spent to benefit our service children, as well being aware of what we can ask from our schools.

As you know, SPP is money that is paid directly to state schools, free Schools and academies across England for supporting Service children. The amount is £300 per child in Years R-11. It was introduced by DfE as part of the commitment to delivering the Armed Forces Covenant, and the intention of the premium enables schools to provide extra, mainly pastoral, support for children with parents in the Armed Forces.

Schools, in essence, have the authority to decide how the money is to be spent on Service children mainly on pastoral support. It is not there for the use of the whole school, schools need to show how this money is spent, and OFSTED will check up on this.

Different schools can and will spend the money in different ways, but they must be able to demonstrate, when inspected that SPP is benefitting the service children within the school. As the funding comes from the DfE, and they own the policy for SPP, I would hope that the teachers who spend time with the service children would have a clear understanding of best practice and also the needs of the individual child. “