00:00As the summer holidays come to a close, it's time to head back to school.
00:05But many families are facing a familiar but growing challenge.
00:09The cost of basic school items like blazers, shirts and shoes has surged in recent years.
00:16Experts warn this could make it harder for some families
00:20to provide their children with the proper school attire.
00:22Mya's community centre in Hearn Bay is a volunteer-led organisation aiming to support families
00:30and provide essential resources for financial strain, including their school uniform bank.
00:36The uniform campaigns, we do them every single year.
00:40They run whole summer so people bring us unwanted uniform or some people purchase uniform for other
00:47people so we hang it all there and other people who can't afford it, they will come and take it.
00:52Last week, it was a really emotional moment.
00:54Mum was crying because she found the right size uniform for her child.
00:58And I said, you should be happy.
00:59She said, I'm so grateful because I was going to homeschool my child
01:04because I couldn't afford the uniform.
01:06Well, my daughter, Katie, her little girl is starting school next week,
01:14five days only, and she has struggled to get school uniform.
01:18It's costing so much.
01:20You're probably talking about a jacket for ÂŁ80.
01:25Dresses probably going on for ÂŁ20.
01:30So it's really, really expensive.
01:34With the schools going back this week, I spoke to many parents up and down Kent
01:38and they explained to me that they were spending up to ÂŁ500 on school uniform.
01:43ÂŁ500 is a huge amount of money for parents, particularly when budgets are already stretched.
01:49People are feeling the price increases, rent rises, energy increases.
01:54So that's a huge amount of money for them to be spending out.
01:57And part of the problem is when schools insist on pupils having branded items that can only be bought from
02:03specific outlets and so they can't shop around to get the best value for their money.
02:09We would always encourage schools to be looking at school uniform that parents could buy in supermarkets
02:14and everyday clothes stores and to keep the branded items to an absolute minimum.
02:18So the Children's Welfare and Schools Bill, which is going through at the moment,
02:23places a restriction on schools for the number of branded items that they can be requiring parents
02:29to purchase.
02:29So for primary schools, that's a maximum of three branded items.
02:33For secondary schools, it's three branded items plus a tie.
02:37That comes into force in 2026, but Bridget Phillipson is currently encouraging schools to get ahead of
02:43the game and to bring down the number of branded items that they're insisting on earlier than this deadline.
02:49As school gates begin to open, the price of uniform remains a hot topic, highlighting a wider debate
02:56about the affordability of education and the support that families need.
03:01Holly Spires for KMTV in Chatham
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