Of course I am referring to the impending General Election which is confidently being tipped as an upcoming victory for the Conservatives. Like every other industry therefore, looking forward to the year ahead the biggest question must be – if there is a change of government, how will it affect us?’

I think the answer is that whatever the result of the General Election, we are now well-placed to continue influencing the decision-makers. Back in 2006 the Office of Fair Trading put out a report into schoolwear containing a huge number of inaccurate and misleading statements. It seemed to imply that every school in the land should get rid of school-specific uniform. This report effectively heralded the foundation of the Schoolwear Association and we made it our mission to ensure that Ministers, MPs, civil servants and other opinion-formers fully appreciated the benefits of school-specific uniform and that misconceptions about the industry would be debunked.

Since then we have made significant progress with the Labour Party – although this has been limited to an extent by the fact that, as the Government, the Ministers have been able to hold off our requests for meetings since we have such strong relationships with the relevant DCSF civil servants. Having said that, we are regularly writing letters and receiving responses from various DCSF Ministers on issues which are important to the schoolwear industry.

On the other hand, the shadow cabinet has been quite a different story. When we launched our VAT campaign, Untax Our Teens, this gave us a positive angle with which to approach the Conservative shadow DCSF team.  

When we met Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Michael Gove, he highlighted that the party is very much in favour of pupils having a smart appearance – under a Conservative Government the introduction of blazers and ties would not be obligatory but would certainly be encouraged. He was “utterly convinced” of our VAT campaign’s rationale however, since it was a spending issue there was nothing they could do while in opposition...

More recently, Labour has begun to reflect a similar standpoint with Ed Balls apparently claiming at Party Conference this year that secondary school pupils should wear blazers and a tie.

Our sit down with Nick Gibb – Shadow Minister and part of Michael Gove’s team – was just as enlightening. He was surprised to learn what an average school-specific blazer actually costs because of course he had been influenced by media coverage depicting either extreme from the velvet, silk lined to the plain, non school-specific nylon. His views on blazers and ties mirrored that of Michael Gove’s but he went further to say that of the top 50 performing schools in the UK all but one had a blazer uniform.

As we all know, effecting significant change is never a swift process but we have been really encouraged by the reactions from both Labour and the Conservatives so whoever triumphs – Brown or blue – the future of school uniform appears bright (although probably not orange!).

For more information visit www.schoolwearassociation.co.uk

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