Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19) no recourse to public funds: free school meals guidance

Updated 1 March 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on 15 June 2022

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date. Please see our guidance on no recourse to public funds: free school meals.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This guidance will assist you to make a claim for additional pupil premium funding if both of the following criteria apply:

• if at any time between 1 April 2020 and 7 October 2021 you had any pupils eligible for free school meals under the temporary extension granted to some children of groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF)
• these pupils were on the school roll on the date of the October census (7 October 2021)

Claims can be submitted by: 

• primary, secondary and all through maintained schools, academies and free schools
• maintained special schools, and special academies and free schools
• non-maintained special schools
• independent special schools
• pupil referral units
• alternative provision academies and free schools

Claims can be made at local authority, single and multi-academy trust as well as at individual institution-level.

Schools are expected to identify pupils who were eligible in accordance with the eligibility criteria.

The pupils submitted in this claims process will also be eligible for recovery premium funding.

You must not make a claim for any pupils who do not meet the criteria or were not on the school roll on 7 October 2021.

These instructions are to help you complete the no recourse to public funds, free school meals additional pupil premium claim form.

Complete this form if you have pupils who meet the criteria and were not counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census.

Claims can only be made by or on behalf of the eligible schools listed above.

Independent special schools can only apply for pupils where the local authority pays full or part tuition fees. This may include pupils attending one independent special school in another local authority area, but the local authority pays tuition fees either in full or in part with a health authority.

2. When to claim

The deadline to submit your claim is 23:59 on 01 April 2022.

Claims can be amended up until the deadline. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

3. Accessing the claim form

Access the no recourse to public funds, free school meals additional pupil premium claim form to begin your claim.

3.1 Before you start

Before you start the claims process, you should:

• read the accompanying published guidance (this document)
• have a DfE Sign-in account
• be an eligible institution
• have confirmed numbers of eligible pupils who meet the criteria and for whom you will be claiming additional pupil premium

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account 

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, go to DfE Sign-In and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’.

Once you have created the account, log in to DfE Sign-in and select ‘organisations’ and ‘request an organisation’, then enter the URN or name of your establishment.

The request will be sent to the DfE Sign-in approver for the establishment, to approve your request. Once approved, you can access the form.

3.2 If you need further assistance 

If you’re having problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service. You’ll be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, please select ‘other’.

If you believe you are eligible to claim but have problems accessing the form, visit the ESFA help centre.

4. Completing the form

There is no save facility on the form so please have all the information ready before starting the sign-up process. If your form is open for an extended period, you may lose any information entered to that point and will need to sign in and re-enter this information again.

The form presents you with a question which allows you to submit a claim for additional pupil premium funding for pupils who have no recourse to public funds, meet the required criteria, who were eligible for free school meals between 1 April to 7 October 2021 and who were not counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census. The pupils submitted in this claims process will also be eligible for recovery premium funding.

You will be advised on what will happen next once you have submitted the form. Selecting ‘continue’ on each page will take you through the form.

4.1 Introduction page

This page gives you an overview of the no recourse to public funds, free school meals additional pupil premium claim form and confirms the claim deadline.

The data collected in this form will be matched with census data, to track claims and to monitor delivery of these funds.

4.2 Your details

This is a read-only page that confirms your details including your setting when logging in to your DfE Sign-in account.

If you are applying as a local authority or multi academy trust, this page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged into DfE Sign-in.

For local authorities, the details on this page will show the name of the local authority, local authority number, and the name and email address of the person logged into DfE Sign-in. The same will apply to multi academy trusts, where the details will show the name of the trust and the UID number. You will be presented with a dropdown list of all the establishments in your organisation, including their names and URNs. Select an establishment and click continue.

4.3 Submission

You will be asked if you had any pupils on roll on 7 October 2021 who met the ‘No recourse to public funds’ criteria at any point between 1 April 2020 to 7 October 2021.

You should only include any pupils who were not recorded as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census.

When answering ‘yes’ to this question, you will need to enter the number of pupils who were eligible depending on your institution:

• primary (reception to year 6 pupils or aged 4 to 10 when not following national curriculum year groups)

• secondary (year 7 to 11 pupils or aged 11 to 15 when not following national curriculum year groups)

You will then be taken to the summary page.

Checks will be made to ensure only eligible pupils are claimed for, in accordance with the eligibility criteria stated in the published guidance on GOV.UK.

4.4 Summary and declarations

You will then be asked to check all your answers before submitting your claim. You will be able to see the information you have submitted and will see your number of eligible pupils confirmed for the individual school, academy or single academy trust. Please check your answers before submitting your claim form. If you would like to change any answers, use the ‘change’ link that appears to the relevant data entry.

We will ask you to make several declarations.

You will not be able to submit your claim without agreeing to each of these declarations and to do that, you will need to tick each box.

Once you have completed this page, you will be able to select ‘accept and send’ to submit your claim.

You will see a message confirming that your claim has been submitted for the individual school or academy.

4.5 Confirmation

The final page confirms your claim has been submitted and will give you a unique reference number against your submission, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

You will also receive an email which includes your claim reference number. This will also confirm the number of eligible pupils you have claimed for.

We will then review your claim and may contact you if additional information is required.

4.6 Resubmitting your claim form

Claim can be amended up until 23:59 1 April 2022 by selecting the link to the claim form. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

You will receive a new unique submission number for an amended claim.

Please be aware that local authorities and multi academy trusts can also submit and amend claims for individual schools.

4.7 Submitting a claim for another school or academy

For local authorities and multi-academy trusts, if you wish to submit a claim for another school or an academy, you should click on the link ‘submit a claim for another school’, which will take you back to the introduction page and then your details page.

You will also see that an additional page called ‘submitted claims’ has appeared. This lists all the establishments (school name and URN) in your organisation that you’ve already made a claim for and confirms the pupil numbers you have submitted.

Select ‘continue’ and you will be taken back to the ‘your schools’ screen where you can either select:

• a different school to make a new claim
• a school that you have already made a claim for, or has made an individual claim, which will then take you back through the form and allow you to amend any data previously provided

If you wish to withdraw your claim, contact us via the ESFA enquiry form.

5. Enquiries

If you have read this guidance and have any questions about claiming additional pupil premium for pupils eligible under the no recourse to public funds, free school meal extension, or how to complete the online form, visit the ESFA help centre.

If you need to complete the ESFA enquiry form for further assistance, select ‘other’ as your query type.