School uniform change that might see mother and father need to fork out £5,165 per little one
Labour has vowed to convey down the price of shopping for faculty uniforms because it’s warned mother and father might be pressured to spend greater than £5,100 kitting out their youngsters due to rising costs.
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson promised to sort out the issue as a “matter of urgency” if she will get into energy. A Labour authorities would prohibit the variety of branded faculty uniform gadgets, corresponding to blazers, ties and sports activities kits that faculties can require pupils to purchase.
An evaluation by the occasion exhibits that households with a toddler beginning in Reception are projected to spend greater than £5,165 on faculty uniforms over the course of their schooling if costs proceed to rise on the identical fee and so they purchase new garments yearly.
The prices have rocketed with uniform costs for secondary faculty pupils growing by 1 / 4 within the final three years alone. Labour has stated it’ll toughen guidelines so faculties can solely require pupils to purchase a most of three branded gadgets of uniform or PE equipment.
Ms Phillipson stated: “Families are fed up with not feeling better off after 14 years of the Conservatives. Not content with crashing the economy, the Conservatives have also failed to tackle school uniform rackets hitting parents in the pocket, so Labour will take tough and urgent action in the interest of families’ finances.
“We will, at a stroke, change statutory guidance for schools to stop parents from having to shell out thousands of pounds for multiple items of branded uniform.”
It comes as Labour this week will unveil plans to tackle the challenge of children missing school. A poll conducted for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found almost a third of parents believe it is not essential for children to attend school every day The think tank’s report, which questioned 1,206 parents during December 2023, found 28% felt that way, and only 70% of parents are confident their child’s needs are being met – a figure which drops to 61% at secondary school.
Ms Phillipson said: “It’s deeply regarding that we’re seeing actually excessive ranges of absenteeism amongst kids in our faculties. I imagine that oldsters have tasks to ensure their kids are at college, as a result of day-after-day counts and it damages kids’s life possibilities once they’re not in class.”
She said Labour would introduce better support around mental health, breakfast clubs in primary schools and “a reset of the connection between faculties and households, and between faculties and Government”.
