In November 2021, the Department published statutory guidance to ensure that the cost of school uniform is reasonable and secures best value for money for parents. Schools and their governing boards must have regard to this guidance when developing and implementing their school and trust uniform policies. It is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-school-uniforms.

The guidance states that schools should ensure that second hand uniform is available for parents to acquire, and to make these arrangements clear on their website.

The Department has sought to raise parental awareness of this requirement through the Education Hub, which can be found at: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/09/01/back-to-school-week-school-uniform-what-you-need-to-know/.

The subject of domestic science is not a part of the current curriculum. Aspects of the subject have been incorporated into the food technology part of the design and technology curriculum, and the healthy lifestyles topic within the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum.

Information on the school workforce in England, including the number of subject teachers in state-funded secondary schools, is collected as part of the annual School Workforce Census each November. Information is published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

As of November 2021, of the 2,915 state-funded secondary schools that supplied data on the subjects taught by teachers, there were 1,472 schools that reported at least one teacher teaching food technology within the design and technology curriculum at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. This equates to 51% of schools that supplied data.

There were 1,961 schools that reported at least one teacher teaching PSHE at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. This equates to 67% of schools that supplied data.

There were 2,347 schools that reported at least one teacher teaching either food technology as part of the design and technology curriculum and/or PSHE at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. This equates to 81% of schools that supplied data.

Subject teachers are any teacher timetabled to teach the subject for any period in a typical week in November and do not necessarily have a specific post-A level qualification. This timetabling does not cover an entire year of teaching. If there are variations in timetabling across the year, this is not covered in the data available to the Department.

Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are supported in mainstream schools from the allocations of funding mainstream schools receive for all their pupils. These allocations are calculated under funding formulae that reflect the characteristics of the pupils in the school, including those with SEND.

Core schools' funding is £4 billion higher this year than last year. The additional funding announced in the 2022 Autumn Statement means it will rise by another £3.5 billion, on top of that, next year. Taken together, that means a 15% increase in funding in two years. The department will set out plans for the allocation of the additional £2 billion of funding shortly.

This extra funding, on top of significant increases already announced, demonstrates that schools are a key priority for the government, especially in the context of wider fiscal challenges.

The department is investing £2.6 billion between 2022 and 2025 to support local authorities to deliver new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision (AP). This represents a significant, transformational investment in new high needs provision. This funding will support local authorities to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings, and will also be used to improve the suitability and accessibility of existing buildings.

As part of this commitment, in March 2022 the department announced High Needs Provision Capital Allocations amounting to over £1.4 billion of new investment, focused on the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. It is ultimately up to local authorities to determine how to best prioritise their funding to address their local priorities.

The £2.6 billion capital investment in high needs provision announced in October 2021 will also help to deliver up to 60 new special and alternative provision free schools. This is in addition to the 48 special free schools already in the pipeline and 90 special free schools already opened.