p18 Schoolwear:Layout 1 23/12/2009 14:32 Page 18
THE SCHOOLWEAR ASSOCIATION
Drastically Improve Your Production
With the Latest Technology
All school uniforms to
become blue?
David Burgess, chairman of The
Schoolwear Association, takes a
look ahead to the General
Election and the possible impact
that the outcome could have for
the schoolwear sector.
A
round this time last year I gazed into my
school-specific crystal ball and wrote a
column about the trends expected to
emerge in schoolwear for the 12 months ahead. This year, however, as I
adopted my Gypsy Rose Lee pose, all I could see was a haze of blue…
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
| 18 | January 2010 www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88