SCHOOL uniform costs are still setting families back hundreds of pounds each year, despite new rules introduced to make them more affordable.
The Children’s Society polled 2,000 parents from across the UK and found those with secondary school children were paying on average £422 per year on uniform. The average for primary school uniform is £287.
Schools across England were told to review uniform policies and reduce uniform costs from September 2022.
But, 45 per cent of parents in the West Midlands reported their school’s uniform policies had not been updated. A further 23 per cent were uncertain whether the policies had been modernised to save tightly-squeezed parents’ cash.
The high cost of school uniforms can be partly put down to the prevalence of branded items that must be purchased from specialist shops, rather than the more affordable options available at supermarkets or high street chains.
On average pupils are expected to have three branded items, and shockingly 29 per cent of secondary school pupils are required to own four to five branded items, including uniforms and PE kits. A staggering 13 per cent are expected to have six to seven branded items.
Mark Russell, chief executive of The Children’s Society, said: “It’s alarming parents are still forced to spend exorbitant amounts on school uniforms. “With inflation and the cost of living eating into family budgets, we are disappointed the affordability of school uniforms remains a significant financial burden for many families.”
He added the society had campaigned for years to make school uniform affordable and said, while some schools had brought in commendable changes, more still needed to be done.
He urged parents struggling with uniform affordability to contact schools and the school’s governors to see what could be done.
Visit childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/our-campaigns/cut-the-cost-school-uniforms for more on The Children’s Society’s campaign.
