BARNSLEY Council’s school uniform support scheme - which provided vouchers to more than 30,000 children across the town - is set to be scaled back to only benefit youngsters in reception and year seven.
The scheme, which was originally announced last year, formed part of a £2.8m investment by the council to help families across the borough financially and to ensure every child is ready to learn for the 2025/26 school year.
Every family in the borough received a voucher to contribute towards the cost of buying new school uniform - £50 per primary school aged child and £100 per secondary school aged child.
Families living in Barnsley with children attending schools outside the borough also received a voucher.
A total of 33,803 vouchers were issued to Barnsley families.
However, it has now been announced that the scheme is set to be scaled back and the new cabinet will discuss proposals - which state that only children in reception and year seven will receive the vouchers - next week.
A report states: “We recognise that school uniforms can be costly, and we want to support families where we can as part of our Every Child in School Everyday action plan through our Great Childhoods Ambition.
“The council proposes to continue the scheme but through a revised targeted offer.
“Approximately 5,500 children will benefit through an investment of up to £420,000.
“Continue as a non-means tested support so all families with children in the respective year group can benefit, so long as they live within the Barnsley borough.
“This targets support at key transition points where costs are usually highest for families and supports the ‘Belong’ Great Childhoods Ambition priority.”
The year 11 support packs that were offered to youngsters over the last year will be cut.
The report, which will be discussed by cabinet members next Wednesday, also delves into the introduction of the Crisis and Resilience Fund which will replace the Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments in England.
The fund cannot be used to issue blanket support to specific cohorts, or issue support without an individual needs assessment.
The report added: “Overall, this strategic approach represents a shift from broad, universal-type interventions to a model that improves value for money through enhanced targeting of resources, which in turn supports the council’s financial sustainability.”
Council leader William Brown said: “Over the past year, the council introduced a range of support to help residents with the cost of living.
“This included school uniform vouchers, year 11 support packs, as well as allowances and travel support schemes to residents who received council tax support.
“We’ve been working with officers to understand the financial pressures the council face.
“We want to move away from one-off, universal payments and instead offer more targeted and flexible support.
“To do this, we’ll use more external funding from Barnsley Council’s £4.7m allocation of the government’s new Crisis and Resilience Fund to help our residents.
“Our approach also means we can spend taxpayers’ money wisely, use external funding where possible and focus support where it will have the biggest impact.
“This is in line with the conditions of the fund, which is designed to help prevent financial crisis in the first place.”
