The Government is committed to supporting children from low-income families to achieve their potential, including £5bn investment in education recovery and £2.9bn annually in the pupil premium. The pupil premium funds evidence-based high-quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider strategies that will benefit pupils and help to raise their attainment. This can include wider strategies and/or interventions to support attendance. The Department is supporting schools to consider how their pupil premium can support attendance, for example there will be a webinar on this topic in November 2023. To ensure that the pupil premium and recovery premium are focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils, schools must use their pupil premium in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by the Department. The menu has been developed and assessed in line with the EEF’s 3-tiered approach to help schools allocate spending across the following 3 key areas: support for high-quality teaching, such as staff professional development; provision of targeted academic support, such as tutoring, including through the National Tutoring Programme; tackling non-academic barriers to academic success, such as difficulties in attendance, and supporting extra-curricular activities, including sport, music lessons and school trips. On the specific issue of school uniform, while the Department agrees with the committee on the importance of ensuring the cost of school uniform is affordable, it does not believe that it is necessary to conduct a further impact assessment of its statutory guidance. In line with standard procedures, the Department conducted relevant, proportionate impact assessments during the development of the draft guidance, including an Equality Impact Assessment. The Department will continue to assess the impact of the cost of school uniform guidance through continued engagement with key stakeholders, including via correspondence received by the Department from parents, school leaders, and uniform suppliers. In July 2023, the Department published the results of a survey of school leaders looking at changes made as a result of the guidance. It can be found at School and college panel: omnibus surveys for 2022 to 2023 The Department does not believe that it is necessary to publish further non-statutory guidance that highlights best practice as the Department has already published non-statutory guidance to help support schools in developing and implementing their school uniform policy. This guidance can be found at School uniforms - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Additionally, the Child Poverty Action Group, in collaboration with the Children’s Society and Children North East has published guidance that highlights good practice which can be found at Affordable school uniforms: a guide | CPAG. The National Governor’s Association has also published a guide to help governing boards comply with the statutory guidance and to develop school uniform policies that are affordable and inclusive to all.2 The Department recognises that school leaders know their community best and can make decisions on uniform policy that are appropriate to their school. On school transport, updated statutory guidance for local authorities on travel to school for children of compulsory school age was published in June 2023. In line with standard procedures, the Department conducted relevant, proportionate impact assessments during the development of the updated guidance, including an Equality Impact Assessment. The Government’s home to school travel policy aims to ensure no child is prevented from receiving education by a lack of transport, or the cost of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel for eligible children. A child is eligible if they are of compulsory school age, attend their nearest suitable school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance; because of their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the route is unsafe. Where a child has an EHC plan, the school named in their plan will usually be considered to be their nearest suitable school for school travel purposes. There are additional rights to free travel for children from low-income households, intended to help them exercise school choice. The legal responsibility for arranging free home to school travel for eligible children sits with local authorities. Their local knowledge means they are best placed to make the appropriate arrangements to enable them to meet their statutory duty to eligible children. The majority of central government funding for home to school travel is made available to local authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) administered by Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The LGFS for financial year 2023–24 makes up to £59.7 billion available for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022–23. DLUHC will bring forward proposals for the Local Government Finance Settlement 2024–25 in the usual way later in the year. When finalising budgets, local government spending will be carefully considered to ensure councils can continue to deliver vital services. This will include considering the effect of inflation and other wider economic circumstances. The local government finance policy statement, published last December, sets out the measures expected to be maintained into 2024–25. The Department also provides grant funding to local authorities as a contribution towards the cost of ‘extended rights’ travel. This funding supports children from low-income households to exercise school choice, and totals just under £45.8m in financial year 2023–24. We will shortly be calculating local authorities’ allocations of this grant for 2024–25. In doing so, we will, as always, take account of inflation and of changes in the estimated number of eligible children. The Department agrees it is important to raise the awareness of the support available to low income families and will look for opportunities to do this across policy areas and initiatives aimed at providing this support. We do not however believe that it is necessary for there to be a single point of contact within each local authority that families can refer to for help with uniform support. Parents can already contact their local authority directly or use the following search tool to find out if they offer additional support for the cost of school uniform in cases of financial hardship.3 Additionally, the cost of school uniform statutory guidance requires schools to ensure that arrangements are in place so that second-hand school uniforms are available for parents to acquire. It is for the school to decide how this will be best achieved in their local context. However, all schools should have second hand uniform arrangements in place and make those arrangements clear for parents on the school website.