Executive summary
 uniform_failure ( 420kb)
1. Every year Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx) throughout England and Wales report the problems faced by parents on a low income affording school clothing for their children. CAB evidence indicates that the full costs of a school uniform at the start of secondary school can range from £105 to £274. School uniform costs normally occur as a lump sum. Parents on low wages or benefits can find it very difficult to find this amount of money in one go, normally at the start of the autumn term or when their child joins a new school.
2. Where a school has a school uniform, or requires pupils to have particular clothing or equipment in order to participate in the curriculum and the social life of the school, it is important for pupils to be able to fit in by having the right clothing and equipment. Not having the proper uniform can mark out a child as being poor or even as being a troublemaker, failing to meet the most basic of school discipline policies.
3. CABx have reported that pupils have been threatened with exclusion from school simply because they did not have the correct uniform. Where a parent cannot afford a school uniform it is important that there is adequate financial assistance available to enable children from low income households to avoid any risk of formal exclusion for not having the correct school uniform.
4. The availability of financial assistance with the costs of school uniform has been a long standing concern of the CAB Service. It is far from adequate and fails to meet needs. Local authorities have the power, under the 1996 Education Act, but not a statutory duty, to provide financial assistance to help parents meet the costs of school uniforms. Typically this may be through a school uniform grant scheme. In 1991 the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) published Uniform Hardship. In that report we looked at the provision by local education authorities (LEAs) of school clothing grants for low income households. In a survey of 32 local authorities in England and Wales we found significant variations in LEAs’ approaches to their discretionary powers to provide school clothing grants. A few of the authorities surveyed were found to offer no support at all, and others only offered help with uniform costs in very exceptional circumstances. Where grants were available they were often inadequate to meet needs.
5. Ten years on from the report Uniform Hardship, CABx continue to report clients having problems meeting the costs of school uniforms. Families on low income can find themselves with no help at all. In a comprehensive survey of 125 LEAs’ school uniform grant schemes, conducted by CABx in England and Wales, we have found that the availability and amount of financial assistance with school uniform costs for parents on low income, has significantly declined in real terms since 1990. There are also significant variations between LEAs’ policies in terms of the amount of financial help they provide, to whom they provide it, and methods of payment and publicity. Key findings include:
- 29% of authorities offer no form of financial assistance for parents on low incomes to meet the costs of school uniforms. Eight of the 29 authorities surveyed in 1990 and 2000 have withdrawn their grant schemes in this period;
- although 71% of authorities do offer some financial help with school uniform costs, a significant proportion of these authorities only provide help for pupils of secondary school age. Only 39% of local authorities offer assistance to primary school age children;
- the value of grants is, on average, unlikely to meet needs. The average amount of a grant available for the costs of a school uniform on joining secondary school is £49.00. All the CABx that reported costs of full school uniforms quoted figures of over £100. Although nine local authorities provide grants between £80 and £100 at transfer from primary to secondary school, amounts of £40 to £50 are more typical. In one local authority the grant available at this stage is only £15. The value of the grants in all but one of the authorities surveyed in 1990 and 2000 have declined in value in real terms over this period;
- there are significant regional variations in the availability of assistance with school uniform costs. A higher proportion of local authorities in the East, South West and Yorkshire and the Humber have schemes to provide financial assistance with the costs of school uniforms than in other areas. In our survey local authorities in the Midlands were least likely to provide any such assistance - only 27% of authorities in the Midlands provide help with uniform costs;
- there are also significant variations between authorities’ policies on how often parents can apply for assistance. One third of authorities with grant schemes permit applications from parents every year. Other authorities only permit applications every other year and some limit awards to one per pupil throughout their whole school career.
6. Eligibility criteria are so restrictive that help is often not available to all families who need it:
- a quarter of LEAs limit eligibility to people receiving a narrow range of social security benefits - parents who are receiving income support or income-based jobseeker’s allowance. These schemes exclude parents who only receive housing benefit, council tax benefit, Working families’ tax credit (WFTC), retirement pension, disability benefits or vouchers from the National Asylum Support Service. Some schemes, 6% of LEAs in our survey, even exclude parents on income support and income based jobseeker’s allowance unless they can demonstrate exceptional hardship;
- some school uniform grant schemes do not cover all the clothing that a school may expect a pupil to have. For example, the grant may be intended only for the purchase of coats and/or footwear or may not be used for the purchase of a PE kit;
- nearly half of LEAs will only provide financial assistance by means of vouchers. Where these are redeemable at only one shop or supplier this prevents parents from shopping around to get the best value for money. Some types of vouchers also carry a stigma, marking the recipient out as someone who is poor;
- few LEAs take an active approach to encouraging take-up of their grant scheme. Only a small proportion of CABx in our survey were able to say that their LEA used a variety of methods to publicise the availability of financial support.
7. Local authorities who either provide no or only limited help with the cost of school uniforms may have formed the view that adequate help is available from welfare benefits, including the social fund, or charities. But until recently, specialist school clothing or sports kit has been excluded from the social fund precisely because there is scope for assistance to be provided by LEAs. Whilst budgeting loans from the social fund have been available for the costs of school uniforms since April 1999, access to the social fund is discretionary, and restricted to people who have been in receipt of a limited range of social security benefits for more than 26 weeks. And the social fund is not meeting all the demands on it. Over 600,000 people were refused budgeting loans from the social fund in 1999/00, and in over half of those cases because they would be unable to afford to repay the loan (DSS, July 2000).
8. Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) guidelines to school governors on school uniform state that in making decisions on school uniform policy governors should be ‘sensitive to parents who may be in financial difficulties’(January 2000). However, CAB evidence suggests that schools are not always sensitive to the financial problems faced by parents when making decisions about school uniform policies. Whilst some schools have hardship funds for school clothing costs or operate second-hand clothing stalls, others have very strict clothing requirements and yet offer no help at all.
9. It is clear from CAB experience that local charities are much in demand for help with school uniform costs. Some local charities were set up specifically to help with the costs of children’s clothes and shoes and are of great assistance to CAB clients. But it would not be appropriate for central Government and local authorities to expect charitable assistance to fully meet the needs in this area on a long-term basis.
10. The most significant conclusion that emerges from our survey is that the absence of Government leadership on school uniform grants has resulted in declining levels of support and wide variations in provision – another postcode lottery. There is no central guidance to LEAs on the exercise of their discretionary powers to provide financial assistance towards the costs of school uniforms. It is not surprising that the approach taken by LEAs varies enormously and fails to meet needs adequately.
11. It is surprising that a government committed to tackling child poverty, social exclusion and access to education has not yet actively addressed policies on help with school uniform costs. There are no Government initiatives to ensure consistency between local authorities in their policies, or to ensure that LEA policies make a consistent contribution to tackling social exclusion in relation to education at a local level. And there is no information held centrally about LEA schemes or monitoring of local authorities’ policies.
12. The time has come for the Government to introduce a statutory duty on LEAs to meet minimum standards in relation to school uniform grants. This should be backed up with earmarked funding within the education standard spending assessment. Minimum standards should cover eligibility criteria, levels of grants, payment methods and accessibility of the schemes. (The minimum standards that we propose are outlined in Sections 3, 4 and 5 and summarised in Section 7 paragraph 7.11.)
13. In advance of a statutory obligation we recommend that the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) should issue guidance on good practice in school uniform grant schemes incorporating a set of minimum standards. The minimum standards that the CAB Service considers appropriate are set out in Section 7 paragraph 7.11. We also recommend that the DfEE should collect and publish information about LEAs’ school uniform grant schemes and keep them under review.
14. We recommend that the DfEE amend guidance in circular 10/99, Social Inclusion and Pupil Support. The guidance should be specific that where a school wishes to exclude a pupil for persistently failing to meet uniform requirements the school should investigate whether there may be any financial reasons why the child is unable to comply. We recommend that the effectiveness of any guidelines issued relating to school uniforms and exclusion are monitored to ensure that they are not resulting in unfair and inappropriate exclusions.
15. The DfEE should amend the existing guidance (January 2000) to schools on school uniform policies. Schools should avoid expensive requirements. The guidance should also include examples of best practice in the help that schools can provide for low income families.
16. We recommend that LEAs that do not operate a scheme for help with costs of school uniform introduce one which is consistent with the minimum standards we outline in Section 7 paragraph 7.11.
17. We recommend that LEAs that do operate grant schemes review their schemes against the minimum standards we outline in Section 7 paragraph 7.11 and consider introducing changes in line with those proposals. We also recommend that all LEAs review their schemes annually to ensure that they reflect local needs and costs.
18. To improve the take up of school uniform grants, LEAs should link applications to their schemes to applications for other benefits which are administered by the authority, such as housing benefit or council tax benefit.
Finally, we recommend that school governors ensure that before deciding on the introduction of, or changes to, a school’s uniform policy, consideration should be given to the position of parents who may face financial difficulties. Schools should do all they can to actively assist parents on low income in meeting uniform requirements set by the school.
uniform_failure ( 420kb)
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