Service Children and Pupil Premium
These notes are designed to clarify the difference between who you record in census as a Service Child and the Service Children you will receive Pupil Premium for.
Who to record as a Service Child
The Service Children indicator recorded on the School Census indicates if a child has a parent or parents who is/are Service personnel serving in regular HM Forces military units of all forces, or in Armed Forces of another nation and stationed in England, and exercising parental care and responsibility.
Please note that the Territorial Army are not classed as the regular armed forces and, as such, these pupils should not be considered Service Children on the School Census.
The Service Children Indicator is only relevant to children whose parents are designated as Personnel Category 1 or 2. All parents will be aware of their Personnel Category.
Personnel Category 1 (PStat Cat 1)
a. PStat Cat 1. Those in PStat Cat 1 will meet one of the following qualifying criteria:
(1) A legally married member of the Armed Forces, who lives with their spouse, or who would do so but for the exigencies of the Armed Forces.
(2) A member of the Armed Forces, who is registered in a civil partnership in accordance with the Civil Partnership Act 2004, or is in a civil partnership under an overseas scheme recognised under that Act, and who lives with their registered civil partner, or who would do so but for the exigencies of the Armed Forces.
Personnel Category 2 (PStat Cat 2)
b. PStat Cat 2. Those in PStat Cat 2 will meet one of the following qualifying criteria:
A member of the Armed Forces who has parental responsibility within the terms of the Children Act 1989 for a child(ren) and who satisfies all of the following conditions:
(a) Can properly be regarded as the centre and prime mover in the life of the child(ren).
(b) Provides a home where they normally live with the child(ren) except where unable to do so for reasons attributable to their service in the Armed Forces.
(c) Provides, where the child(ren) is unable to care for itself, a child carer who can look after the child(ren) during their absences attributable to their service in the Armed Forces. The child carer must not be the other natural parent of the child(ren). The other natural parent should normally only have staying access to the child(ren) for an aggregate of 56 days in any 12 month period. Staying access greater than this may render the Service person ineligible for PStat Cat2 (these restrictions on access do not apply while on recognised Unaccompanied Duty).
(d) Accepts financial responsibility for the child(ren).
Pupil Premium Allocation
For 2014-15 the Service Child Pupil Premium will be based on pupils recorded on roll in the January 2014 School Census who are either:
- recorded as a Service Child in either January 2011, January 2012, January 2013 or January 2014*; or
- in receipt of a War Pension Scheme (WPS) or Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) pension from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as a result of injury, illness or death caused by Service#
The extension of the Service Child Pupil Premium outlined above will not affect the data required from schools via the 2014 Census collections as data providers will only be expected to return those pupils currently classed as Service Children as at census day (16 January 2014). The Department for Education will then use the information already available via National Pupil Database and Ministry of Defence child pension data to determine the actual numbers of pupils eligible for the Service Child Premium with each eligible pupil attracting a unit cost of £300.
* Provided they are in years R-11 and are solely registered or Dual Registered Main
# the figures for children in receipt of a WPS or AFCS pension from the MoD have been derived by the matching of a list of eligible pupils from the MoD into the National Pupil Database (NPD) based on the pupil name, d.o.b and address held by the MoD. Hence only pupils where the DfE have been able to obtain a successful match to a record in the NPD have been included.
Reviewed on 01/08/2019