‘I’ve never been able to afford more than one skirt’: Labour’s school uniform plan sparks fierce debate

Rachel Toms is totting up how much it’ll cost to buy her daughter’s branded school uniform: £37.60 for a blazer, £26.20 for a long-sleeve PE t-shirt, £27.95 for a skirt with the precise tartan pattern demanded by the school, £23.80 for a jumper. It’s easily more than £100, and that’s assuming spilled paint or playground scrapes don’t force her to buy replacements. When all four of her kids were in school, it was a constant juggling act for Toms, who gets by on universal credit and disability benefits.

“I’ve never been able to afford where they’ve had more than one skirt,” she says. “It’s been a nightmare basically.

“It spirals I think, to have to fork all of that out at the beginning of the school holidays.”

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Labour is limiting the amount of branded school uniform items schools can require. In a move it says will save families more than £50 per child, schools will be able to require no more than three branded items of uniform beyond a tie – not just items with logos, but anything distinctive which cannot be purchased from a range of shops.

School uniform is encouraged rather than compulsory, but almost all schools require pupils to wear it. The average cost of school uniform was £249.58 in 2023, a slight decrease from 2015, government data shows, with 86% of parents reporting their child’s school requiring branded uniform, increasing to 98% for secondary schools.

Part of its Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the government’s policy was welcomed by Barnardo’s, whose chief executive Lynn Perry said the charity had supported children who stopped attending school because their family couldn’t afford the right uniform.

“With many families this winter having to make tough decisions about whether to put food on the table or heat their homes, school uniforms are yet another essential item that many parents struggle to afford,” said Perry. “Although the cap on school uniform items is welcome, we urgently need the government to take bolder steps – including a commitment to end the unfair two-child limit on benefits, which would lift 490,000 children out of poverty.”

But the new limit – which builds on existing guidance to schools from the previous Conservative government – has sparked warnings that learning standards will suffer as schools are unable to enforce behaviour.

“This completely arbitrary cap will have drastic unintended consequences for education standards and welfare – all while making the cost problem worse, not better,” said Matthew Easter, chair of the Schoolwear Association. “There is a significant risk that the government’s decision will adversely impact pupils and school life in general, by undermining the welfare and attainment benefits that uniform is there to preserve.”

For Toms, it will be useful. “With the high rising cost of everything, every penny is going to be absorbed into clothes and food and heating,” she says. “£50 doesn’t even get you two bags of shopping at the moment.”

MPs voted through the bill’s second reading on Wednesday 9 January, and it will now be scrutinised by a public bill committee, with the measures coming into force in September 2026 if approved. In the meantime, says Toms, schools can place too much emphasis on uniform. Government data shows 8% of parents have had a child sent home from secondary school because of incorrect uniform, increasing to 18% among families who reported financial hardship as a result of buying uniform.

“It just seems ridiculous how strict they’re getting with it. If you’re going to send a child home because they’ve got the wrong sort of trousers, that’s a day of education they’re missing,” she says. “I don’t think the schools appreciate the circumstances of what we’re going through to get them to school every day.”

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