Section 1. The Department of Education must issue guidelines about school uniform policies to schools/ review these guidelines at least once every three years/ may reissue and must reissue the guidelines if they are revised following review. The guidelines may cover specific or general points schools must take into account when devising or reviewing their uniform polices and may require schools to include additional information – or explanation – as well. The guidelines must state who is to be consulted by schools when devising or reviewing uniform policies – this must include parents and pupils - and how often the policies are to be reviewed. The guidelines may cover transitions in terms of what applies from a particular date, and also may cover transitionary periods for schools e.g. if changing uniform then a lead in time. There is no restriction on the Department covering other [relevant] matters in its guidelines about school uniform policies. In practice this means that sections 2 to 5 of the Act are essentially details of what sorts of things in particular guidelines are going to cover, but they do not limit the generality of what could be done under section 1. Therefore, guidelines could still do things in ways not specifically mentioned in sections 2 to 5 (as read with sections 6 and 9 to 11).
Section 2. The guidelines must address unfair costs aspects of uniform policies and cover the comfort & practicality of uniforms/ nature and adequacy of uniforms for classroom or academic subjects; informal or play-based learning; recreational, sporting or outdoor activities/ value for money/ lending of uniforms and use of clothing banks. Unfair costs aspects are defined in section 9. The guidelines may cover what is reasonable or unreasonable in relation to schools specifying particular suppliers or manufacturers and requiring any particular item or set of clothing, including specific styles or for a specific activity/ occasion. Clothing and styles are defined in section 10.
Section 3. The guidelines must require uniform policies to ensure items can be bought from more than one retailer or supplier unless a declaration is made by the manager of a school demonstrating how such an agreement delivers value for money. Guidelines must require a manager of a school to publish, at least annually, information on any single/limited supplier agreement relating to its uniform unless it is a pre-commencement agreement. Agreement is defined to include contract and pre-commencement agreement is defined as one being in place before this section of the Act comes into operation.
Section 4. The guidelines may set requirements or restrictions on the numbers of items or sets of clothing a school can require pupils to wear. This enables a limit on numbers of branded items.
Section 5. The guidelines may set either a maximum cap on the monetary cost, or a range of costs, for an item or a set of items, or for the total uniform requirements. And the guidelines may state the expectation that schools design their uniform requirements to stay within any such limit. This is subject to a commencement order before it comes into operation.
Section 6. This section expressly allows guidelines, wholly or partly, to be framed by reference to different permutations involving relevant schools and particular pupils or ages or year groups. They may also be applied to certain, or all, school terms or years in future, Foundation Stage or Key Stages 1,2,3 or 4. Schools and pupils are defined in section 11.
Section 7. The manager of a school the guidelines apply to must adhere to them when devising or reviewing the school’s uniform policy and when implementing & enforcing the policy. The same applies to any member of staff involved in devising, reviewing, implementing and enforcing the uniform policy. Manager of a school is defined in section 11. They must publish the policy - and any additional information or explanation the Department has required of them under section 1 - on the school’s website.
Section 8. The Department must give directions to a manager of a school if satisfied the school has materially not adhered to the guidelines and may give directions to a manager of a school if satisfied that pupils are being subjected to disciplinary action/ participatory disadvantage for breaching the uniform policy. The Department becomes satisfied through its own assessment of the school uniform policy, or information via a complaint or in an Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) report or in a report of a Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO) investigation. A complainant should have exhausted the school’s internal complaints procedure first. The Department has to ask the relevant manager for the school’s perspective. If the Department issues a direction about adhering to the guidelines, it may be specific with a deadline for action – this can be for a specific school term or year in future or generally for all school terms or years in future. If the Department issues a direction about pupil discipline or participatory disadvantage measures, it may require the school to end or moderate such measures. By reference to Article 101(6) of the 1986 Order, directions must be complied with and compliance is enforceable by mandamus (a court procedure). This extends to grant-aided and independent schools equally, even though that Article (101) does not itself relate to both types of schools. The full text of a direction must be published within three months of being given.
Section 9. Defines that unfair costs aspects mean any aspect of a uniform policy that could – in the Department’s view – raise questions about excessive costs of individual or all uniform items or sets of clothing, or unreasonable costs due to limited choice of suppliers. The Department has to particularly consider any evidence of specific vs generic styles and non-affordability for lower income households.
Section 10. Clothing includes footwear; specific styles include brands or logos, unique combinations, colours, fabrics, badges, emblems or markings.
Section 11. References to schools throughout this Chapter mean grant-aided and independent primary and post-primary schools/ pupil means those being educated at such schools/ manager of a school includes the Board of Governors in the case of grant-aided schools or the proprietor in the case of independent schools. Manager of a school can, should this be necessary, extend to other persons or authorities in cases where the management of the school could be in different hands e.g. the Education Authority in the case of controlled schools (as a subset of grant-aided schools). The terms grant-aided or independent schools, primary or secondary education are all defined in Article 2(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and these definitions also apply in this section or Chapter respectively.
Section 12. This clarifies that references to the Department in this Chapter mean the Department of Education.
Commentary on Sections Part 1 School Uniform Policies Chapter 1 Department to issue guidelines