{"id":292969,"date":"2025-04-29T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/sunderland-second-hand-school-uniform-scheme-flat-out\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T06:00:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T06:00:39","slug":"sunderland-second-hand-school-uniform-scheme-flat-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/sunderland-second-hand-school-uniform-scheme-flat-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland second-hand school uniform scheme ‘flat out’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sunderland<\/div>


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Andy Watson<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC News, North East and Cumbria<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting from<\/svg>Hendon, Sunderland<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Second Chance has been running for two years and says it has seen demand rise<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A community shop which runs a free second-hand school uniform scheme says it is “flat out” serving families who cannot afford to buy branded clothing.<\/p>\n

Second Chance CIC in Hendon, Sunderland, collects donations of pre-warn items which are offered to those in need for no charge.<\/p>\n

It comes as the Department for Education (DfE) tries to change the law to limit the number of compulsory branded items required by schools to three, plus a branded tie for secondary students, in a bid to cut costs for families.<\/p>\n

Wendy English, director of Second Chance, said on average 20 families used the service each day and, “on top of bills and food, people just can’t afford clothing”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The government believes parents in England will save around \u00a350 per child through its school uniform measures, which it hopes to introduce in September 2026.<\/p>\n

However, school uniform manufacturers claim the plans could end up costing them more.<\/p>\n

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill still has several parliamentary stages to go through<\/a> before becoming law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donated clothes are left outside on a rail outside the store for customers to pick up for free<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Second Chance, which opened in April 2023, restocks its uniform donations daily and customers are able to access items without needing a referral service.<\/p>\n

“We can struggle to restock the shop,” Mrs English said. <\/p>\n

“We run out of donations but I think it shows how many people need us.”<\/p>\n

She believes the new rules are a “good start” for what she says is a growing problem. <\/p>\n

“We are flat out with families who can’t afford to buy branded uniforms, so they come here,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Second Chance aims to move to a larger site this year in order to better deal with the demand. <\/p>\n

“Some schools, like St Anthony’s, have branded PE kits which contain the pupils initials,” Mrs English explained.<\/p>\n

“I’m currently looking at ways we can remove them so they can be used again.” <\/p>\n

Marie Lanaghan, headteacher at St Anthony’s Girls Catholic Academy, said uniforms can create a sense of “unity and pride” within a school, but she recognised cost challenges. <\/p>\n

“We appreciate a balance needs to be struck,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We welcome the government’s new bill, which provides clarity.” <\/p>\n

The average cost of a full school uniform and PE kit for a child at secondary school is \u00a3442, and \u00a3343 for a primary school pupil according to DfE data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Watson BBC News, North East and Cumbria Reporting fromHendon, Sunderland BBC Second Chance has been running for two years and says it has seen demand rise A community shop which runs a free second-hand school uniform scheme says it is “flat out” serving families who cannot afford to buy branded clothing. Second Chance CIC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250409-091508-0ef9b7676-web-2.19.1-12\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[5396,8940,192,10951,70972,49027],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292971,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292969\/revisions\/292971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}