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HERTSMERE: Stitched up by uniform cash cut
A grant that helps low-income families bear the cost of school uniforms has been scrapped, affecting more than 300 families in Hertsmere.
The £81 grant for secondary school students and £20 for primary pupils was available from Hertfordshire County Council to families who are also entitled to free school meals.
In the 2007/8 financial year, 448 families in Hertsmere applied for the grant, of which 320 were successful. This meant a total of £16,963 was handed out by the council.
At a meeting of the Borehamwood Headteachers Association last Thursday, Jan Palmer Sayer, headteacher of Hertswood School, in Borehamwood, raised concerns about the decision, which was made without consulting teachers.
Speaking this week, Ms Palmer Sayer voiced her anger at the move, saying 20 per cent of her Year 7 students would have been entitled to the grant.
She said: "I wrote to Robert Gordon, leader of the council, outlining the concerns I feel face my school community, trying to make sure the county understood the situation as viewed from down here in Borehamwood.
"There is an ignorance about what this means for some of our families. It is vital students feel they start school on equal terms with everyone else.
"I don't underestimate how hard it is for parents to make sure their children turn up in full uniform, so I have gone to great lengths to reduce the cost of ours."
But Ms Palmer Sayer estimated the cost of the Hertswood uniform was still about £120, excluding shoes.
Borehamwood borough councillor Ann Harrison considers the withdrawal of funding "unbelievable".
She said: "All our schools over the past few years have worked hard to improve their reputation within the town and are rightly praised for the behaviour and appearance of our young people.
"To take this grant from the poorest in our community will impose additional hardship on parents trying to do the best for their children and put an additional barrier in the way of our schools striving to achieve equality of opportunity for all our children."
The council said the grant had been withdrawn because of budget cuts.
A spokeswoman said: "The necessitous clothing scheme was a discretionary grant to help low-income families with the cost of school uniforms where children were moving schools.
"Members reluctantly decided in February to withdraw the grant from April 1, 2008. This decision puts Hertfordshire in line with many other local authorities.
"There may be exceptional circumstances where the council would consider a grant, and this would be on a discretionary basis. A lot of schools run nearly-new shops to help with the cost of uniforms, and parents can contact the customer service centre if they need further advice."
But Ms Palmer Sayer believes cuts should have been made elsewhere. She added: "What is ridiculous is that we have been given the power from central Government to turn pupils away who are not in uniform, and yet the county council has taken away the facility for some families to easily provide it.
"If we want young people to succeed, and we want them to rise above their circumstance, we ought to facilitate that and do all we can. Parents work very hard to make sure the rules of the school are upheld and it grieves me that this extra burden is going to be placed on them."
9:50am Friday 18th April 2008
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