Schoolwear Association

We are proud members of the Schoolwear Association who promote best practice across the UK Schoolwear industry and are committed to ensuring that a long-term, robust and competitive market for the supply of schoolwear exists and that parents, pupils and schools all get a fair deal.

We as members of The Schoolwear Association proudly believe that well-supplied school uniforms help to promote social inclusivity, build a sense of school identity and improve outcomes for schools and pupils.

Properly developed and appropriately implemented school uniform can:

• Provide a sense of identity, community and cohesion within the school;
• Support positive behaviour and school discipline;
• Ensure that pupils dress appropriately for learning activity;
• Remove peer pressure to dress in particular fashions;
• Enable pupils of all backgrounds to share in a common identity which embraces their particular requirements;
• Help reduce inequalities between pupils and help reduce some triggers for bullying;
• Benefit safeguarding and attendance polices through helping to identify truants;
• Assist identification of strangers on school premises;
• Support and promote the ethos of the school

We are committed to ensuring that school uniforms provide fair value for all pupils at the least cost to the world’s resources.

Our Values

1. Inclusivity

Access to a suitable school uniform should be available to all, irrespective of gender identity, race, religion or belief, disability, body shape or income. We work with the schools we serve to ensure our uniforms are available to all pupils and have options in place to support those who would otherwise be excluded.

2. Responsibility

We go to great lengths to ensure the sustainability of our products in terms of both the environmental and labour impact of their supply chains.

In a world of dwindling resources and cheap labour, we and the Schoolwear industry as a whole are seeking to minimise our impact. By their nature school uniform designs do not generally change year-on-year. We are committed to offering durable and long- lasting garments that can be worn many times. This serves to reduce their overall impact on the environment and also provides significant value for money for parents and carers.

We actively promote clothing designed to be long-lasting and champion schemes to reuse and recycle old garments. We believe our industry should be at the forefront of sustainability and must be rigorous in ensuring that everyone working in our supply chain is fairly treated and paid.

3. Transparency and value for money

We ensure our uniforms offer excellent value for money and that our pricing is transparent to both parents and schools. We welcome the guidelines produced by government departments in England, Scotland and Wales as providing clarity for the industry and school governors. We promote and support this guidance and to be proactive in future developments.  

Code of Practice for Members of the Schoolwear Association.

Values

We ensure our business upholds the aims, and values of the Schoolwear Association, in particular our values of Inclusivity, Responsibility and Transparency.

1. Inclusivity (Our Commitment to our parents)

• We work with our schools to ensure that families on low incomes are not educationally disadvantaged or excluded due to the cost of uniforms. Some examples of social value initiatives to support families with affordability include offering a second- hand uniform service; establishing ‘swap shops’, and providing vouchers for those most in need.
• We ensure that parents can access uniform all year round and commit to keeping appropriate stock levels 12 months of the year.
• We commit to providing uniforms for ALL pupils, irrespective of sex or gender identity, race, religion or belief, disability or body shape.

2. Responsibility (Our Commitment to our suppliers and the world)

• We operate to the highest reasonable standards of ethical compliance, working to ensure that everyone in our supply chain is fairly treated. We only source product from suppliers who respect national labour laws or the standards set by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), whichever is the higher benchmark.
• We are constantly looking at new innovations and ways we can reduce the environmental impact of our products.

We ensure garments worn by pupils are safe and comply with the regulations, including, but not limited to the following:

• The code of practice on Mechanical Safety of Childrenswear.
• The Safety of Children’s Clothing – Cord and Drawstrings.
• General Product Safety Regulations
• Flammability

3. Transparency and value for money (Our Commitment to our schools and our customers) 

• We encourage all our schools to comply with guidance provided by the DfE or other UK devolved governments on the Schoolwear market. These seek to ensure a competitive tendering process and caution against the payment of commission for exclusive contracts.