Policy into practice: Back-to-school costs

Over a quarter of parents on low incomes admit they will have to borrow money to afford basic back-to-school costs. Their hardship is coming at an unfortunate time since a high proportion of councils across England and Wales no longer offer clothing grants.

Four million children are living in poverty in the UK. While charities and community organisations are trying to help, measures need to be put in place to ensure all parents can meet back-to-school costs. Schools meanwhile need to ensure their uniforms can be bought from a range of accessible and affordable suppliers.

CASE STUDY 1

Citizens Advice runs a campaign called Adding Up, which aims to help families who are in financial difficulty to afford school necessities. It encourages schools across England and Wales to make uniforms, specialist equipment and school trips more affordable, while lobbying local and central government for more widespread availability of school uniform grants. The website www.citizensadvice.org.uk/addingupcampaign offers advice to schools on how to help parents meet the costs of their child's education. It also contains tips for struggling parents, from how to save money to legal advice on challenging schools and local authorities that fail to offer uniform grants.

CASE STUDY 2

Many of the secondary schools in the London Borough of Islington require pupils to wear specifically tailored clothing, so Islington Council has introduced a new school uniform grant of £150 to help struggling families. The council believes families from disadvantaged backgrounds would find it hard to buy specific blazers because they are not available at cheaper supermarkets. The fund, which is significantly higher than the basic grant of £25 available in most other authorities, will hopefully help many parents in the area and inspire other local authorities to boost their support for families struggling to cope with back-to-school costs.

Anne Longfield is chief executive of 4Children