YES - Victoria Winckler, director, Bevan Foundation
Ensuring there is a supplier of school uniform that offers an affordable choice could really help parents to meet the cost of sending their children to school.
We found particularly at a secondary school level the costs can be very high. In some cases, a school says that the child must buy an expensive blazer from a certain supplier.
We are not calling for an end to school identity though. If this idea of having just one, affordable supplier was to happen it is important that a choice is offered for different schools.
NO - Gill Griffin, vice chair, Schoolwear Association
We carried out a survey of our members and found that the prices on offer were far lower than those officially released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
I'm also not sure that having one supplier is feasible. What about the postage costs, for example?
We think it is better to have a local supplier that can go into schools and talk to them to come up with a school uniform package that is good value.
YES - Liz Thorne, London development manager, End Child Poverty
End Child Poverty recognises the difficulty many parents face in meeting the costs associated with school. Having one uniform supplier is an interesting idea that could significantly help parents and is certainly worth exploring.
One of the other ideas that we support is an annual school clothing grant of £50 for parents out of work. This would help them avoid the need to get into debt, particularly in the lead up to the new school year in September.
NO - Kirsty Williams, leader, Welsh Liberal Democrats
While we do need to look at issues of ensuring that schools keep uniform costs down to a minimum, such a measure does not address the underlying reasons for child poverty in Wales and takes away an important element of choice and individuality.
Child poverty stems from embedded inequalities within our society and we can only help those children who are suffering its consequences by looking at the vicious cycle of unemployment and lack of skills and the erosion of aspiration and self-belief.
