School uniforms: Education minister to consult on price cap

Paul Givan said costs of uniform could be a barrier to certain schools for some people

Northern Ireland's education minister has said he intends to launch a public consultation on introducing a price cap for school uniforms.

Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was speaking in the assembly on Tuesday.

Members were debating a Sinn Féin motion calling for the minister to "make school uniforms more affordable".

The consultation will also look at placing current guidance for schools on uniform policy into legislation.

The minister said he had been advised by officials his department "will be in a position to consult in late spring of this year", adding that he was "keen that we will be in a position to take decisions later in the year".

Mr Givan told assembly members there was statutory guidance on school uniforms in other parts of the UK but not in the Republic of Ireland.

"There is no price cap in place anywhere on these islands. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it," he added.

A new law mandating schools to remove unnecessary branded items from their uniform requirements came into effed in England in September 2022.

Thomas Cave from The Children's Society said that the changes in England had "definitely been welcome".

"Many schools are doing a much better job in terms of seeking to reduce the branded items that parents are having to buy for their children," he said.

However, Mr Cave told BBC News NI's Evening Extra Programme that in a survey of parents conducted by his charity, fewer than half of respondents said the price of uniform had reduced at their child's school since the legislation came into force.

Mr Cave said there was a "degree of vagueness in the guidance that some schools have maybe interpreted more widely than they should do".

Dawn Little, co-founder of Omagh Uniform Exchange, said a price cap on school uniforms was "long overdue".

Dawn Little from Omagh Uniform exchange said about 3,500 families made use of the service last summer

Also speaking to Evening Extra, Ms Little said she heard stories "all the time" of families struggling to pay the cost of school uniform.

When she first opened a uniform exchange in 2020, she said 700-1,0000 families making use of the service, but by summer 2023 that had risen to 3,500.

Ms Little said she was worried the legislation could take up to a year to come into effect and urged politicians to "get it done sooner rather than later".

• Should there be a school uniform price limit?

Mr Givan told the assembly the cost of uniforms "should never be a barrier to what school you go to" but that it was something some parents had to take into account.

"I believe that's wrong, and we need to make sure that there isn't any barrier in place when it comes to what school you go to," he said.