Debate contribution: School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 3 March 2025.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

3 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4826446

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. When, just over a year ago, I took up office as Minister of Education, I made it clear that I wanted to make a difference to hard-working families and to ensure that no child's choice of school was determined by the affordability of its uniform. Today, I am pleased to bring forward legislation to address the cost of school uniforms. I look forward to the scrutiny and support of Members as the Bill moves through the legislative stages so that we produce the best legislation possible. I believe that this is an area in which we can achieve consensus across the Chamber. We can all agree that families in our constituencies need support with uniform costs, that action to address the affordability of school uniform requirements is needed to deliver that support and that the legislation that we debate today will form the basis of the action needed. The role of the Bill is to provide the necessary powers to ensure that the statutory guidelines have authority, and it does that. To be clear, it is not the role of the Bill to replicate the contents of those statutory guidelines. It is important to note that the Office of the Legislative Counsel, to which I afford my thanks, drafted the Bill based on the policy instructions from my Department. The Bill sits along existing legislation, and is drafted in that context. The Bill sets out a legislative framework that provides the necessary powers to make statutory provision through the guidelines to deliver the key principles and purpose that were consulted on. My officials are working in parallel to develop draft guidelines based on the Bill as introduced, building on existing guidance that schools should be familiar with. The consultation on the policy proposals underpinning the Bill received a high response rate. Almost 7,500 people replied, and over 4,000 of those were children and young people. That does not always happen and highlights the importance of the issue and the legislation. It has also been reflected in media coverage, including viewpoints from parents welcoming the Bill since I introduced it on 18 February. The Bill contains 16 clauses over three chapters. Whilst I do not intend today to talk through each clause, I will point to specific provisions throughout the Bill. It is based on principles that received a high degree of support in the consultation, namely that school uniforms should be affordable, comfortable and sustainable, with policies that are developed in partnership with pupils and their parents, published and regularly reviewed. A key purpose of the Bill is to make departmental guidance to schools about their uniform policies statutory. That is achieved through a combination of clauses 1 and 6. Clause 1 places a duty on the Department of Education to:

"issue guidelines about school uniform policies",

and clause 6 places a duty on relevant schools to adhere to those guidelines and to publish all required information. Transparency is at the centre of the statutory arrangements. The Bill will apply to all grant-aided and independent primary and post-primary schools, with a power to make regulations through the draft affirmative procedure to place a duty on preschool providers, should that prove necessary in the future. The information to date indicates that it is at the post-primary and then primary level where cost pressures are being felt by parents. I consider it prudent to future-proof the legislation so that, if an issue arises in the future at preschool level, it can be addressed. I pay tribute to all schools across all stages and sectors for all the work that they do to benefit our children and young people, and I thank those who already consider affordability for families when setting their uniform requirements. To be clear, it will remain a matter for each school to decide whether it wishes its pupils to wear a uniform. That is not something that my Department or I intend to mandate. While I recognise the benefits of a school uniform for ethos, safeguarding and the avoidance of peer bullying based on outfits, schools are best placed to work with parents and pupils to decide what their uniform should be. What will be different once the Bill comes into operation is that all primary and post-primary schools will have to put affordability at the centre of their uniform policies, including addressing unfair costs aspects. "Unfair costs aspects" are defined in the Bill as including aspects of school uniform policies raising questions about the cost of items, limited suppliers and branded items, all within the context of the impact on lower-income households. Schools will have to publish information about the rationale for the uniform requirements and consult parents and pupils in developing and reviewing them, with this information also to be published alongside cost and supplier details. To be clear, a school cannot conduct a tick-box consultation and then ignore the outcome. It will be set out in the statutory guidelines that the consultation must be with its parents and pupils and be meaningful, and the outcomes must be published. Reasonably, it means that if the parents and pupils have a strong view, it will be published, and any attempt to overlook such a view, strange as such an approach would be, will be visible, require explanation and be challengeable. The Bill provides the necessary powers to ensure that sustainability is considered with regard to the reusability and recycling of uniforms, uniform banks and value for money. It provides the necessary powers for comfort and practicality, accessibility and consideration of fabrics to be key in school uniform policies. We know that those points matter for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in particular. Rightly, the detail of much of this will sit in the statutory guidelines and, as I have said, my officials are working in parallel to develop them. There has been discussion on the Floor of the Chamber across two debates in the past year about capping the costs of school uniforms. We see that, in England, they are having to make further primary legislation in addition to making their guidance statutory in 2021, albeit schools there merely needed to have regard to that guidance, whereas, under the School Uniforms Bill, they must adhere to the guidelines or the Department can direct them. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in England seeks to place a cap on the number of branded items that primary and post-primary schools can require as part of their uniform.

I do not want to have to come back to the Assembly with further legislation to address the issue. You will see that, in clauses 3 and 4 of the School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill, the power to put in place a cap is covered. Flexibility is built into the Bill for that to be a cap on the numbers of branded items — clause 3 — and/or the cost of individual items or an entire uniform, as set out in clause 4. It can also be a combination of those factors. Those clauses provide the necessary powers to enable such a cap to be set and allows for it to be modified, lifted or reinstated as necessary, as time progresses and cost issues are addressed.

There was a high level of support for a cost-control measure in the response to the consultation. A cap was one such measure, but others were suggested, such as banning expensive blazers or branded PE kit. An even higher level of support was expressed for ensuring a competitive market for school uniforms. Open competition is the means by which expert bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) suggest driving down and keeping down costs. It may be that a cap is brought in for a time-bound period or, if needed, once we see the impact of the statutory guidelines. The important point in relation to the Bill is that the necessary powers are in place via clauses 3 and 4. Colleagues in the Executive agreed to the underpinning policy proposal that powers relating to a cap should be enabling and permissive. In their consultation response, members of the Alliance Party acknowledged that further consultation on the detail of any cap, including who would set, monitor and review it, is needed. My officials are looking at that detail. I know that some Members have suggested that an independent body would be needed to set and manage such a cap, but that would bring with it an additional cost for which my Department has no budget. That suggestion again highlights the need for careful consideration of how a cap could be appropriately operated and by whom. Clauses 3 and 4 are drafted to come into operation via commencement orders. That means that further work on the detail of how a cap might operate can be taken forward in parallel with but without delaying the implementation of statutory guidelines. I am mindful of the uniform suppliers, many of which are small to medium-sized enterprises. They work so hard to support schools in the provision of their uniforms, and I want to take care that no unintended consequences materialise that cannot readily be addressed. As with everything, a balance needs to be struck. The starting point for that is to ensure that the necessary powers are set out correctly in the Bill. The Bill provides the necessary powers for the Department to require schools to include "transitory, transitional or savings arrangements" in their uniform policies or for changes to be made to them. That allows the guidelines to specifically include advice to schools about transition periods when making uniform changes. The cost of branded uniform, particularly PE kit, is frequently raised as a matter of concern, and the School Uniforms Bill provides the necessary powers to address the cost of PE kit, including branded sportswear, as part of the statutory guidelines that schools will have to adhere to. As I said, clause 3 provides a power for the Department of Education to limit or cap the numbers of individual:

"(a) items of clothing, or (b) sets of clothing".

That is drafted by reference to "specific styles". The term "specific styles" is defined in clause 9 and includes clothing:

"of particular makes or brands (or having particular logos)".

The term is utilised throughout the Bill, including in relation to the definition of unfair costs aspects in clause 8. Unfair costs aspects must also be addressed in relation to school uniform policies. In addition, clause 2 provides that the guidelines can provide for:

"what is to be regarded as reasonable"

in terms of branded uniform items in either daywear or PE kits. As Members scrutinise the Bill, it is important that they think about the interlinkages between clauses, including where definitions are provided, and about the balance between how a power is articulated in legal terms in the Bill and what that enables the statutory guidelines to address. Of course, the work will need to be monitored to ensure that it has the necessary effect and makes the necessary difference for parents. The Bill states that the Department must review its guidelines from time to time. Understanding how effective the guidelines have been in addressing the issue of affordability for parents and carers will underpin any such review. The Bill requires schools to publish their uniform policy and a range of other information on which I touched earlier, so information will be readily accessible. In addition, there is a specific reference in clause 7 to Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) reports as a source of information when the Department is considering whether a school has materially failed to adhere to the guidelines or is subjecting its pupils to disciplinary measures due to a breach of uniform policy. Throughout this school year, the ETI is working to develop case studies of good practice to assist schools. In addition, my officials are engaging with the ETI about the potential for inspectors to include questions about the consultation process and the overall uniform cost and policy for parents and pupils of a school as part of its inspection. There is also scope to commission an evaluation by inspectors. Again, my officials have begun those discussions. The Bill also provides for a specific complaints route to the Department for anybody concerned that a school is not adhering to the statutory guidelines. In any circumstance in which the Department determines that a school, following engagement and consultation with it to ensure balance, is not adhering to the guidelines, it can direct it to do so. That provision has legal force, so it ensures that the Bill will be enforceable and will have teeth. It is the start of the process, and I am keen to put in place good legislation to help parents and to address cost issues relating to school uniforms. Clause 14 extends access to the uniform grant operated by the Education Authority (EA) under the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 to pupils at independent schools. That corrects an anomaly whereby a low-income family can currently access a uniform grant only if their child attends a grant-aided school and not an independent school. While the Bill will require schools to ensure that its uniform is affordable for all families, I recognise that the EA's provision of uniform grants is an important support for low-income families to help them meet the cost. As Members will be aware, the eligibility criteria that apply to uniform grants have recently been consulted on. The consultation received over 700 responses, which my officials are currently analysing. I expect to receive a report on that analysis in the near future. We need to be realistic, however, and understand that any increase in the number of families eligible for a uniform grant or any increase in the rate of uniform grant can happen only if it is affordable to do so. I have spoken on many occasions in the House about how my Department is chronically underfunded. I will have to consider the uniform grant issues alongside the many other competing funding priorities that my Department has. It should be remembered, though, that it was my DUP colleague Michelle McIlveen who raised the rate of uniform grant by 20% from the 2022-23 academic year, after it had remained unchanged for over 10 years. While I recognise that the rate of the uniform grant is one way in which to reduce the impact of uniform costs on low-income families, I believe that schools seeking to minimise the cost of their uniform can be of even greater benefit. Giving statutory effect to departmental guidance, placing a duty on relevant schools to adhere to that guidance, providing a power of direction in the event of non-compliance and specifically defining key terms to be addressed via a school's uniform policy, such as specific styles and unfair costs aspects, will, when taken together, make an impact. My focus is on making an impact for the families most in need, and I trust that Members will scrutinise the Bill through that lens. I commend the School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill to the House.

2,531 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:07 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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