Children In Care Pupil Premium for 2015-16

21 April 2015

Guidance to Schools and Academies on the funding process for Children In Care (CIC) Pupil Premium (PP)

Children in Care Pupil Premium, also known as Pupil Premium Plus

The new arrangements, which came into effect last year, around the administration of Pupil Premium Plus will remain for 2015 /16.


The Local Authority will continue to receive £1,900 for each looked after child and this funding will initially be retained by the Virtual School Kent (VSK) Headteacher as required by the Department for Education. The funding is ring-fenced for making improvements for the educational attainment of children in care, and this new arrangement will strengthen the link between schools, academies and VSK and support packages will be more creative.

The payment of this funding to schools/academies in 2015/16 financial year will continue to be based on individual agreements between VSK and your
school/academy. These agreements will initially cover the period from 1 April 2015 through to 31 August 2015. Any agreed funding for this period will be paid to schools/academies in the June advance.

From 1 September 2015 a new agreement will be established which will cover the entire 2015/16 academic year. It is our intention to pay any agreed funding to schools/academies in three instalments:

  • Instalment 1 to be paid in the November 2015 advance for the period up to 31 December
  • Instalment 2 to be paid in the February 2016 advance for the period up to 31 March 2016
  • Instalment 3 to be paid in the June 2016 advance for the period up to 31 August 2016

If a child who is subject to a VSK agreement leaves your school/academy before the end of the term then the payment to your school/academy will stop at the end of the current term/payment period. The funding will follow the pupil at the start of the next term/payment period with a new agreement between VSK and the new school/academy.

Other Local Authority Looked After Children 

As in previous years schools/academies will still need to make arrangements to collect funding from Other Local Authorities (OLAs) for their LACs placed in your school. OLAs may apply a different payment profile which is at their discretion. To date we have no information from the DfE regarding PP funding rates for 201617, therefore for the purpose of estimating future year's budgets we have assumed that the funding rates will be maintained at the 2015/16 levels.