England to cap school branded uniform items at three per pupil
Parents in England could save about £50 a child when branded uniform items are capped at three, plus a tie for older pupils. Schools with longer lists stand to lose most.
Most schools in England will be limited to requiring no more than three branded uniform items per pupil when the new rules take effect on 1 September 2026, with secondary and middle schools still allowed to require a tie. The cap is meant to save parents money, and it will affect more than four million pupils across England.
The change sits inside the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, part of the government’s April 2025 Education Hub explainer on cutting school uniform costs. Schools in England are not required to have uniforms, although the Department for Education strongly recommends them. On 23 August 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority warned that some school uniform policies may be at risk of breaking the law.
One itemised basket posted by a parent put a blazer, black trousers, a school tie and a grey jumper at £78 at Asda, while two skirts in a pack were listed at £82. Under the new cap, a school could still require three branded items, plus a tie in secondary settings, so a list with four branded requirements would have to lose at least one branded item before it could comply.
The government estimates parents could save around £50 per child, but the size of the cut will depend on how many branded pieces each school currently demands.
Schools can continue to choose the three branded items they require, and the rule does not force those remaining items to be cheap. Secondary and middle schools can also keep a branded tie in the mix, which preserves one more compulsory purchase even as the overall list shrinks. The Schoolwear Association supported affordable uniform policies but argued that the average cost of compulsory secondary school uniform had fallen by around 25% since the current statutory guidance was introduced in 2021, and it raised concerns about the proposed legal cap on branded items.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
