Councillors back call for more support for children of armed forces personnel

The letter from Councillor Kathleen Leslie (Conservative) will ask the government to pay a Service Pupil Premium.

The premium has operated in England since 2011 and currently stands at £310 per child per annum, and the money can be used for pastoral and attainment support.

“We have Pupil Equity Funding (PEF) to provide additional support to raise attainment in our schools, this is based on the free school meal ratio. We have though an absence of any specific support for the children of Armed Forces personnel,” Cllr Leslie said.

“Targeted financial support should be in place in our schools where there is recorded data of the children of those who are serving. We are able to do this with PEF to ensure there is no identification of individuals and no stigma attached, why can we not also do that for those whose parents may make the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our nation?”

“I think we are all agreed that we need to support our service personnel. There’s no argument on that,” David Ross, Labour leader of the minority administration said.