Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a voucher scheme to (a) cover in full or (b) subsidise the costs of school uniforms for children from households whose annual income is less than £16,000.

It is for the governing body of a school to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and if so, what that should be.

In England, some local authorities (LAs) already provide discretionary grants to help with buying school uniforms. LAs that offer these grants set their own criteria for eligibility. Further, schools can also choose to use the pupil premium funding that they are allocated to help support their disadvantaged pupils to offer subsidies or grants for school uniform; this would be a decision for the school to make.

The cost of uniform should not act as a barrier to obtaining a good school place. All children should be able to attend a school of their parents’ choice wherever possible. No school uniform should be so expensive as to leave pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice.

The Department’s best-practice guidance advises schools that, in setting their school uniform policy, they should give the highest priority to cost considerations and achieving value for money for parents. The guidance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.