by Dr Lucy Robinson, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Cardiff University

Who are Service Children?

Service children are identified by virtue of the occupation of their parents. The British Armed Forces is made up of serving personnel from all three Services: the Army; Royal Navy and Royal Marines; and the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Armed Forces community has a broader definition and includes all current personnel, veterans and their families.

Service children’s lives are shaped by the unique demands placed on personnel who work in the British Armed Forces. As such, service children are more likely to move (home and school) than their non-service peers and parental separation is common amongst service families.

Alongside these experiences of mobility and separation, being part of an armed forces family results in the creation of a distinct identity, which further sets service children apart from their peers. As a result, they have unique educational experiences, associated needs and a distinctive identity which are often not fully understood, or supported, in the English state school context. These key challenges stem from the fact that many service children are highly mobile, moving as frequently as every 18 months, in an educational system designed for static children.

In each new educational setting, the admission process, curricula, support for additional needs, public examinations, and funding models can vary considerably. As a result, service children experience educational discontinuity. This interruption to their schooling is combined with the challenges schools have in providing appropriate provision and support for these children; academically, socially and emotionally.

How many service children are there in English state schools?

Since 2011, service children (aged between 5 -16 years) in English state schools have received targeted funding, known as the Service Pupil Premium (SPP). This acts as a proxy for knowing how many service children are in these schools. For this academic year (2025-2026), £350 per child was provided to schools for 76,419 individuals, amounting to just over £26.74 million in total (Department for Education [DfE], 2025).

Whilst it is often assumed that service children attend schools situated within the proximity of the major garrisons, ports and bases belonging to the Armed Forces (and thus distribution is geographically concentrated), this is not the case. An analysis of the DfE’s data highlights that the geographical spread of service children across England is far broader and that, over time, military families have become increasingly dispersed (Rodrigues, Osborne, Johnson & Kiernan, 2020; SCiP Alliance, 2022). Indeed, Hall’s (2019) analysis of unpublished DfE data highlighted that 52% of schools across England have at least one service child, but within that 52%, half have only one or two service children.

Why should schools support service children?

• The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise by the nation to ensure that those who serve or who have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly.
• The Armed Forces Covenant Duty is a legal obligation on certain public bodies – including English state schools – to pay due regard to the Covenant principles when exercising certain functions.
• Section 3 of the statutory guidance is all about education and includes the following key aspects where due regard should be applied to service children

How can schools support service children?

Despite the Covenant, awareness, understanding, and subsequent support and provision for service children is patchy across schools. So, what can be done? A good place to start is the SCiP Alliance’s Thriving Lives Toolkit:

• This is a framework of 7 principles that schools can use to reflect on their practice, alongside a 3-tier set of CPD resources.
• Freely available (just requires a sign up).
• The resource can be accessed using this link: SCiP Alliance’s Thriving Lives Toolkit.
• Members of the network may be particularly interested in Principle 2 (outlined on next page) which focuses on service children’s mental health and wellbeing.