The government recognises the significant contribution and sacrifice made by members of our armed forces and their families. In the 2026/27 financial year, expenditure on the service pupil premium (SPP) in England is £26.8 million.

The SPP provides additional funding to state-funded schools to support the pastoral needs of children from service families. It is intended to help schools address the challenges that service children can face as a result of service life, including mobility between schools, parental deployment and separation from family members. Schools can use the funding in ways that best meet the needs of their service children, helping them to thrive both academically and emotionally.

This funding reflects the government's commitment to supporting service children and ensuring that they receive the support they need to succeed in education.

This government is committed to improving outcomes for all children, including those from service families. The department works closely with the Ministry of Defence to support service pupils and help schools address challenges associated with service life, including mobility and family separation.

Schools receive Service Pupil Premium funding to provide additional pastoral and educational support. Current evidence shows that service pupils generally achieve attainment and progression outcomes comparable to their non-service peers, suggesting that the support available, including the Service Pupil Premium, make a positive impact.

The department keeps all education funding arrangements under review as part of wider policy and spending considerations.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) provides extra funding to help schools meet the pastoral and educational needs of children from service families. It is designed to help schools respond to the specific challenges associated with service life, including mobility, parental deployment and periods of family separation.

Schools have flexibility in how they use SPP funding, and there are many examples of it being used constructively to support service children. The department works closely with the Ministry of Defence to provide joint guidance for schools and share good practice. It is important that schools remain attentive to the potential impacts of service life on pupils’ educational experience and their wider wellbeing.

As a group, service children’s academic attainment is broadly comparable to that of non‑Service, non‑free school meals pupils, and their rates of progression to further education, employment or training after key stage 4 are also similar.

To better support the educational needs of mobile pupils, the mobility factor in the schools national funding formula allocates additional funding to support schools with high levels of pupil mobility.

Schools where more than 6% of pupils joined at a non-typical date through the school year in the last three years attract funding through the factor. Reception pupils whose first recorded census was in the summer and pupils from years 1-11 whose first recorded census was in the spring or summer are deemed to have joined on non-typical dates.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Service families make extraordinary sacrifices for our country. The department continues to support Service children in a range of ways, principally through the Service Pupil Premium, targeted funding that state schools in England are allocated so that they can provide pastoral and academic support, tailored to the specific needs of Service pupils to mitigate disruptions from frequent school moves and parental deployments.

The government keeps the Service Pupil Premium under regular review to ensure it is meeting the intended objectives and providing value for money. We will continue to monitor how funding streams support children’s outcomes and consider future funding decisions as part of the normal budget and spending review processes.

It should also be noted that schools which experience major changes in their pupil cohort from year to year, including those serving Armed Forces communities, attract additional funding through the “mobility factor” in the schools national funding formula. In the 2026/27 financial year, schools will attract £985 for eligible primary pupils and £1,415 for eligible secondary pupils, above a threshold of 6% of the schools’ pupil numbers, where more than 6% of the school’s pupil numbers are classified as mobile.

The service pupil premium (SPP) provides additional funding for state-funded schools in England attended by children from service families. In the 2026/27 financial year it is worth £360 per service child.

The SPP is not a personal budget and schools have flexibility over its expenditure. The funding is primarily to enable schools to offer pastoral support and help mitigate the negative impact of family mobility or parental deployment. We have published advice and wider guidance for schools and local authorities on supporting service pupils, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance.

In addition to the SPP, schools also attract funding for pupil mobility through the ’mobility factor’ in the schools national funding formula. In the 2026/27 financial year, schools will attract £985 for eligible primary pupils and £1,415 for eligible secondary pupils, above a threshold of 6% of the schools’ pupil numbers, where more than 6% of the school’s pupil numbers are classified as mobile.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is additional funding for state-funded schools in England with children and young people of service families. It will be paid at a rate of £360 per eligible pupil in the 2026/27 financial year.

Schools can tailor their SPP expenditure to meet the specific pastoral and academic needs of individual service children and help mitigate the impact of matters such as family mobility, separation, or parental deployment. It is the responsibility of each school to decide how to use their SPP funding and to communicate this with parents.

Schools are encouraged to consider best practice in the use of SPP funding, set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-examples-of-best-practice

Guidance for schools, academy trusts and local authorities on supporting service pupils is published jointly by the department and the Ministry Of Defence here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance.

This recommends that schools consider recording their use of SPP funding as part of their mandatory pupil premium statement, unless they have reason to believe this will identify individual pupils. An optional field in the template is provided for this purpose.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is additional funding for state-funded schools in England with children and young people of service families. It will be paid at a rate of £360 per eligible pupil in the 2026/27 financial year.

Schools can tailor their SPP expenditure to meet the specific pastoral and academic needs of individual service children and help mitigate the impact of matters such as family mobility, separation, or parental deployment. It is the responsibility of each school to decide how to use their SPP funding and to communicate this with parents.

Schools are encouraged to consider best practice in the use of SPP funding, set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-examples-of-best-practice

Guidance for schools, academy trusts and local authorities on supporting service pupils is published jointly by the department and the Ministry Of Defence here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance/service-pupils-in-schools-non-statutory-guidance.

This recommends that schools consider recording their use of SPP funding as part of their mandatory pupil premium statement, unless they have reason to believe this will identify individual pupils. An optional field in the template is provided for this purpose.

The Service Pupil Premium (SPP) was introduced in 2011 and provides state funded schools in England with additional funding to support the wellbeing and other education-related needs of children and young people aged 5 to16 from armed forces families. The value of the SPP has risen from £200 per eligible pupil in the 2011/12 financial year to £335 in the 2023/24 financial year. The number of eligible pupils has also increased over this period, from around 45,000 in 2011/12 to nearly 79,000 in 2023. This is due to the method of allocation progressively being able to record more former Service children, an increased willingness of Service parents/carers to inform their child’s school of their being in the armed forces, and demographic changes). The total amount of SPP funding allocated to schools is over £26 million in the current financial year, compared to £9 million in the 2011/12 financial year.

Schools have flexibility over how they use the SPP, as they are best placed to understand and respond to the specific needs of their Service children. While the Department does not routinely monitor school SPP expenditure, we encourage schools to include details of how they use the funding when completing the mandatory reporting template for the disadvantage Pupil Premium. The Department intends to review a sample of these statements to identify and assess the principal ways in which schools are spending their SPP allocations.

The Department and the Ministry of Defence also take account of feedback on school SPP expenditure provided by organisations that represent armed forces families and schools with Service children on roll, with a view to identifying and disseminating examples of the grant being used in effective ways.

Following research led by the Service Children's Progression Alliance (SCiP Alliance), the 'Thriving Lives Toolkit' was developed which identified seven principles for effective school practice in supporting Service children and a framework to help schools undertake evidence-based reflection, identifying their improvement priorities for this cohort. A central aspect of one of the principles is school transparency and how a school supports Service children through the targeted deployment of resources, including dedicated funding where available, i.e. the Service Pupil Premium. The SCiP Alliance 'Thriving Lives Toolkit' was launched in mid-2020 with an editable version of the toolkit made available in November 2020 and an online version being presently developed.

Information held by the SCiP Alliance indicates there have been a total of 345 downloads of the editable version since November 2020. Comparable information for the non-editable version is not held. When the online version has been launched, fuller management information will be available.

The number of local authority-maintained schools in receipt of the Service Child element of the Pupil Premium in each of the last five years are shown below. The figures have decreased over the period due to the number of academy conversions in that time. The figures for financial year 2020/21 are also shown but are provisional, as the new and growing schools are due to be incorporated in the final quarterly update later this year.

I have had meetings with the Minister for School Standards to make sure that the process is a lot smoother and that people who can access the service pupil premium can do so further in advance of their posting. Again, this issue comes under the armed forces covenant. I am confident that, when this Government do legislate to make sure that no individual is disadvantaged because of their service, such incidents will be no more.

When a service child moves to a new school, it is up to the old school to flag this on the student’s file, otherwise there could be a delay in receiving the service pupil premium. What discussions has the Minister had with the Education Secretary about the guidance provided to schools to ensure that every service child gets the education they deserve?

I am very keen that the service pupil premium is used in the way that it has been designed for—pastoral care and things like that—and if the hon. Lady has evidence that that is not taking place, I invite her to write to me and we can look into it.