Debate contribution: School Uniforms: Affordability

Debate contribution by Mr Nick Mathison on 5 March 2024.

MLA

Mr Nick Mathison

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

5 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

School Uniforms: Affordability

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4252490

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Alliance is pleased to support the motion. We hope that the House will also accept our amendment, which, as I will set out, will help to further tackle extortionate uniform costs. I am delighted to see the motion being debated. I think that we all know just how many families in our constituencies are suffering as a result of the ever-rising cost of school uniforms. Every August, the media cover the issue and we hear genuinely heartbreaking stories of families getting into debt and sometimes having to skip meals to meet the cost of their child's school uniform, which, for many post-primaries, can run into the hundreds of pounds. Therefore, I welcome that we are having the debate now in March. We are not having it as we look at a cliff edge in September. The issue really cannot be allowed to make another appearance in the summer and then go away for another year. We have been in that cycle for too long. We need to listen to parents and guardians and act as soon as possible to get the issue under control. I thank, in particular, Naomi McBurney from Save the Children for all the hard work that she has undertaken on the issue. The round-table event in the Long Gallery that many Members here attended back in November provided a very stark insight into the harm that is caused by uncapped school uniform costs and that is visited on families every year. I also note the previous work that Pat Sheehan referenced through the parental engagement group and the research that it carried out on the issue. Data from the Save the Children survey across Northern Ireland tells us that, in 2023, six in 10 families struggled to cover the cost of school uniforms and PE kits. An astonishing 73% of low-income families that were surveyed said that they found purchasing school uniforms and PE kits financially challenging, with 49% of middle-income families reporting the same issues. Another worrying figure that emerged from the survey was that one in 10 parents said that their child had missed out on school due to issues relating to school uniform or PE kits. The cost of school uniforms and PE kits is preventing children accessing their right to education. That cannot be allowed to continue. In that same survey, respondents told us about having to use credit cards, incur debt or borrow money from family or having to rely on grandparents on an annual basis to cover the costs of uniforms and PE kits, with spending on food, energy and fuel often being reduced to meet the cost. That is done to meet the cost of something for a child when that child has a right to attend school and that parent has a legal duty to send them. That cannot be acceptable. Many of those who were polled spoke personally about the dread, stress and worry that they feel each year as they think about buying new uniforms and their children starting school in September. Those are not words that should be associated with your child's journey through the education system. For many, the impact is felt over several months as they deal with mounting debt, which they then have to bear the burden of over the year. After PE kits, which have been raised as a particular problem, with branded items being insisted on in uniform policies, blazers and shoes are cited as the next most challenging items to purchase. Those who were polled felt that, across the board, school boards of governors are not doing enough in their policies to keep the costs down. We know that the school uniform grant here is significantly less than what is available in other parts of the UK. The parents polled who are eligible for the grant said that it is never enough, due to the uncapped costs of uniforms being so high. Save the Children shared a particularly heartbreaking story about a single parent who had always struggled with paying for the cost of uniforms. She received a grant, but it did not cover the cost of the uniform, so she ended up in a scenario where she was borrowing money and incurring further debt. She eventually had to request that her parents step in to clear the debt in order for her to get her finances back on a stable footing. That is somebody who received the grant that is meant to support parents with the cost. The Parentkind national parent survey 2023 found that nearly one in three parents in Northern Ireland struggles with the overall cost of sending their child to school. Parents in Northern Ireland, in particular, have higher levels of concern about those costs compared with those in any other jurisdiction in the UK. The parents here who were surveyed cited the cost of school uniforms as their primary concern. In thinking about this issue, I have been lucky enough to meet a number of children and young people over the past year or so to discuss their ideas and concerns when it comes to school uniforms. I thank the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People's youth panel and the Secondary Students' Union of Northern Ireland for their engagement with me on the issue. While, almost without exception, the children agreed that the concept of wearing a uniform has some merit as an equalising force in schools, concerns were repeatedly raised that it further embedded socio-economic divides that they were already highly conscious of in their schools. Older students remarked that they were acutely aware of the impact of the high cost of uniforms and PE kits on their parents and on family life. Students should not be bearing the stress of the financial strain that their parents face just to enable them to attend school. Again, it is not acceptable. The expense of starting secondary school has been repeatedly highlighted to me by students, with tighter uniform requirements and the branded items really coming to the fore. Pupils highlighted the fact that, in some sixth-form settings, costs rise again. There are specialised blazers for sixth form and specialised blazers if you are appointed a prefect. Again, that is a further uniform cost when you might have a blazer that fits perfectly well available from the previous year. It has been noted that uniforms help to promote equality among pupils and take away the pressure to fit in based on how you dress every day, but it is disappointing that that pressure, which might be passed to a pupil if they had to wear something other than a uniform every day, is now passed on as a financial pressure to the parent. Our amendment seeks to implement a price cap on total school uniform costs. Ideally, we would like to see that set independently and a body established to be responsible for setting the affordable cap each year. The cap would be the maximum amount that any board of governors could require a parent or guardian to pay for their child's school uniform. We hope that, as soon as possible, possibly on a phased basis, the school uniform grant can align with and be fixed at the same amount as the school uniform cap, meaning that those most in need would receive financial assistance that covers the actual cost of the uniform, not a gesture towards it. That measure would ensure that meaningful steps are taken to drive down costs. We do not believe that words and aspirations are enough any longer, because, regrettably, boards of governors have not complied with the guidance in many instances, and learning from England suggests that the statutory guidance that was introduced in that jurisdiction, unfortunately, has not been complied with either and that students and families face the same costs and pressures. I welcome the motion's call on the Minister of Education to conclude the review of eligibility for the school uniform grant. I urge the Minister to act as soon as possible to publish the review's results to ensure that as many families as possible can benefit from an enhanced grant this September. While we support the motion and its call to introduce statutory guidance, I hope that this debate will draw out some of the failures around the system in England to deliver. The cost of school uniforms has been an issue for years. It is only going to get worse as the cost-of-living crisis continues to impact on family finances. I therefore urge all Members across the House to support our amendment to demonstrate that we are serious about tackling the issue, which is having a harmful impact on families across Northern Ireland every year.

1,453 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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