Demand for free school uniform rising - charities

'Branded items expensive'

'World Book Day help'

'Super, super busy'

Pop-ups with free school uniforms branded lifeline

Charity launches pre-loved school uniform campaign

Struggling families 'need grants' for school uniforms

Extra funding to combat cost of living in city

Wolverhampton City

Telford Crisis Support

Parentkind

It comes after the average cost of a school uniform was just over £340 for primary school children and around £454 for those in secondary education, government figures indicated earlier this year.

The charity Parentkind produced research this month which suggests 30% of parents go without food or heating to afford uniform and 45% rely on

Erin Aston, from Telford Crisis Support, said: "If somebody can't afford food they might not be able to afford other items like uniform."

The charity runs a scheme which has been giving free school uniform to children in the Telford area since 2019 and it has grown year-on-year.

In its first year it received 125 requests, but Ms Aston, the charity's coordinator, said this year it had received 320 requests in August alone and a similar number in July, with those two months the most busy.

The charity is helped

Buying school uniform could be expensive, Ms Aston said, especially branded items such as blazers and PE kit, which are often in short supply at the charity.

But she said legislation, due to come in next year, which will limit the number of branded items schools can ask parents to buy would be a big help.

Zoe Turner runs a similar scheme in nearby Shifnal, which collects donated school uniforms and then gives them away for a donation of just £1 per item.

She set up Uniforms Together at the start of the year, initially to help parents with the cost of Scouts uniform, which she said was in limited supply at charity shops.

She has been supported

Ms Turner said 236 items went in her first sale, in April, and another 370 were snapped up this summer, with another sale due next month, with all money going to local church groups for children.

She said her group had become "really busy" and was now taking donations for schools outside Shifnal.

Her next move is to offer prom clothes and costumes for World Book Day, but storage space has become an issue, so she has asked local businesses if they have room they can give up.

Wolverhampton City

Since last year it has been offering to match pound-for-pound the first £75 paid into one of its child savings accounts.

That extra money can then be spent on school uniforms.

Antoinette Kelly, who operates the scheme, said she believed: "Every child deserves the chance to have a new uniform on the first day of term."

Last year 340 children were supported

The scheme is financed

She also said Wolverhampton had numerous second hand uniform banks, based at community centres and churches around the city.

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