The start of a school year should be an exciting time but for many parents who struggle with day to day expenses, it presents an extra challenge – how to afford a new school uniform.
This is particularly true for the families that we work with at Buttle UK, where school uniforms formed part of 44% of the Chances for Children grants, we made last year.
On average, we included school uniforms in grants, to 6 families every single day across July and August 2023. We’ve already granted over 300 families uniforms in the 2024 back to school season.
When children and young people are living in households that are barely able to keep their heads above water, crisis can easily multiply, pulling everyone down. Parents and carers find themselves no longer able to provide the basic essentials; things that which we would expect any young person in the UK to have (a bed, school uniform, a cooker).
If there is no one around them who can step up and meet those needs, a child or young person can be trapped in a cycle of poverty and crisis. This is where Chances for Children grants come in.
What makes our Chances for Children grants different is that they offer a holistic funding package of up to £2,400 designed to meet the multiple needs of vulnerable children and young people. The grants meet immediate practical needs by paying for household items, but also meet a child’s longer-term educational and emotional needs. As such, we have found that they can have a disproportionately positive impact compared to their monetary value; in some cases, they are transformational.
The diagram below describes the change that we aim to make with each grant.
“My daughter feels confident to go to school again and her education has really Improved where she doesn’t get bullied as bad for not having the right clothes”
Buying school uniform – something that should be a great equaliser for children – is creating extra stress for those on the lowest incomes. Please consider making a donation to help give a child a uniform they can be proud of.