Guidance

No recourse to public funds: claim form guidance

Published 9 June 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on 28 December 2023

This page has been withdrawn as it is now out of date.

Find the latest information on pre-16 funding from ESFA on GOV.UK.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

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

• on 7 October 2021 you had any pupils that were on roll at the school and met the extended free school meals eligibility that came into effect on 19 April 2022, under the permanent extension granted to children of all groups who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF) - eligibility criteria (including income thresholds) can be found in the published guidance on GOV.UK

and

• these pupils were not eligible under the previous temporary extension granted to children of some groups who have NRPF - eligibility criteria for these pupils can be found on GOV.UK

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.

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

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

You should not include pupils that were counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census, or pupils that were eligible for free school meals through the previous temporary extension to some groups with NRPF.

These instructions are to help you complete the NRPF, free school meals additional pupil premium claim form. Complete this form if you have pupils who meet the criteria and who 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 11:59pm on Friday, 8 July 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

Select the NRPF free school meals additional pupil premium claim form to begin your claim.

3.1 Before you start

Before you start the claims process, ensure that you:

• have read this guidance on how to make a claim
• are an eligible institution
• have a DfE Sign-in account
• 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, visit the DfE Sign-In service and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’.

Once you have created the account, sign in to DfE Sign-in and select ‘organisations’ and ‘request an organisation’, then enter the unique reference number (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 are having problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service. You will be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, select ‘other’.

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

4. Completing the form

There is no save facility on the form, so have all the information ready before starting a claim. 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 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:

• are subject to NRPF conditions
• on 7 October 2021 were on roll at the school and met the extended eligibility criteria for free school meals that came into effect on 19 April 2022
• were not counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census
• were not eligible for free school meals through the previous temporary extension to some groups with NRPF

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

This page gives you an overview of the NRPF, 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 signed 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 signed into DfE Sign-in. The same will apply to multi-academy trusts, where the details will show the name of the trust and the unique identifier (UID) number.

You will be presented with a dropdown list of all the establishments in your organisation, including their names and URNs. Choose an establishment and select ‘continue’.

4.3  Submission

You will be asked if you had any pupils on roll on 7 October 2021 who met the eligibility criteria on 7 October 2021.

You should only include pupils who were not already eligible for free school meals through the previous temporary extension, and who were not counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census.

Further information about the extended eligibility criteria can be found on GOV.UK.

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 the number of eligible pupils confirmed for the individual school, academy or single academy trust.

Review 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 select 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 UID 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

Claims can be amended up until 11:59pm on Friday, 8 July 2022 by selecting 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’ pages.

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, please contact us via the ESFA help centre.

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