RIP-OFF branded school uniforms costing three times as much as regular supermarket options will be banned by the government.
The new law backed by ministers will mean schools can only tell students what items they need rather than specific styles.
Schools won’t be able to demand students get a particular style of uniform
Parents have been forced to shell out as much as 340 for secondary school uniforms and 255 for primary schools for branded school uniforms.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb today backed a private member’s bill brought by Labour MP Mike Amesbury to stop schools requiring the rip-off branded uniforms.
Mr Amesbury told the Mirror: “It is a victory, though we’re not quite there yet. We need to keep pushing to get it through Parliament.”
Mr Gibb said: “School uniforms should always be affordable and should not leave pupils or their families feeling that they cannot apply to a particular school.”
“That is why we will be supporting the progress of this bill through parliament, in order to make our guidance on the cost considerations for school uniforms statutory at the earliest opportunity.”
The Department of Education already advises that no uniform should be “so expensive as to leave the pupils or their families feeling unable to apply to, or attend, a school of their choice.”
But parents have still been struggling with the huge costs of the uniforms.
Nearly one in six families said the cost of school uniforms caused them to cut back on food and other basics, compared with one in seven in 2015.
Charity School-Home support, which helps parents when they can’t afford what their kids need for school, said there had been a “spike” in requests.
An inquiry into the ever-growing prices of school uniforms found branded uniforms are as much as three times more than the cost of regular ones.
Schools will still be able to decide on whether there should be uniforms and what it looks like.
