What sort of stuff can the pupil premium be used for?

[madmomma]

My nephew is a foster child and receives the pupil premium (he's in yr 5). Or rather the school receives it. I understand that foster children are entitled to have the money spent directly on them, is that accurate? It's my mum who is fostering him and we were wondering what we could ask the school to do with the money. So for example he is very musical and my mum would like him to have a (2nd hand) piano. I feel like maybe the school might just hope they can 'absorb' the money into the overall budget and that perhaps he might be missing out on an opportunity to develop his interests. Could he for example have some books? Or does the money have to go on his time in school. Any clarification or examples would be welcome. Thanks.

He is definitely a looked after child. It's not a special guardianship situation. Yes he's very able and enthusiastic and my mum is a retired teacher so she's tutoring him for his 11+ with fingers crossed for a local-ish grammar. She also does his music tuition on violin and piano, but he's so keen that he'd probably lap up singing lessons too so maybe that could be considered. Drama would probably really benefit him too. He's a little overweight and not into sports, so something in the physical area might be good. No idea what though.

Lac children at pupil premium plus. The school have to evidence at personal education plan meetings the targets they have set and what they are spending to achieve them

Could anyone tell me what happens with children under a Special Guardianship Order? Does their PP+ have to be spent solely on them? And should there be a PEP in place?

For clarification, SGO after being LAC.

I would speculate it depends on the sgo suppprt package offered by that local
Authority

The PP for post-LAC children goes into the whole school pot, it's only currently LAC that is tied specifically to them.
It is the higher amount though.
IME, these children have far more spent on them in terms of support in school than usual PP children. For example, reading catch-up, maths catch-up, counselling, pyramid groups or friendship groups etc which all comes out of school budget, not SS or LA budget.

Children who have left care under an SGO are still entitled to the Pupil Premium Plus; however, the money is paid directly to the school and is not managed by the Virtual school, nor is the spend agreed at a PEP (as children on SGOs are not required to have a PEP in place).

The money is paid to the school with the rest of the PP allocation- the school declares in its January census how many adopted children and children who have left care under SGOs or Child Arrangement Orders are in the school. They then receive PPP for that number of children.

This then becomes tricky as, although schools have to answer to OFSTED as to how this money has been spent to improve the educational outcomes of those particular children, there are no other checks to ensure that this is the case. For LAC, the Virtual School will refuse to pay the PPP to schools who cannot evidence how it is used to benefit the individual child; for former LAC, the school can absorb it into its general PP spend and take its chances with Ofsted, often with little consequence.

The upcoming Children and Social Work Bill looks likely to extend the remit of the Virtual School to include former LAC in some way, but the details of this have not been finalised.