Extra cash to kit out thousands of pupils

A total of £1.6m in additional funding is being made available for clothing grants to benefit an estimated 21,000 Lanarkshire school pupils.

North Lanarkshire Council will receive £929,000 with their South Lanarkshire counterparts receiving £678,000 from the Scottish Government.

That’s after the SNP government agreed additional funding with local authority organisation COSLA to increase the minimum sums paid to eligible families by £20, making it £120 for primary pupils and £150 for secondary pupils.

The sums for the two councils are respectively the third and fourth-highest sums being issued across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, which are sharing a combined £11.8m in additional support from Holyrood.

North Lanarkshire Council’s existing grants already exceed the new minimum, with grants of £140 for primary pupils and £150 for secondary being paid to families from this week for uniforms and shoes ahead of next month’s new school term.

The council also introduced a £140 nursery clothing payment earlier this year, becoming the first authority in the UK to do so after allocating £317,000 to the scheme in its annual budget.

Payments from the Scottish Government’s additional funding for school clothing are expected

to benefit 10,622 youngsters in South Lanarkshire and 10,234 in North Lanarkshire in the new academic year.

News of the Holyrood funding was warmly welcomed by MSPS Fulton Macgregor of Coatbridge & Chryston, and Airdrie & Shotts counterpart Neil Gray, who is convener of the Scottish Parliament’s social justice and social security committee.

The politicians contrasted the increased uniform grant and extra funding with Westminster plans to scrap the £20 per week increase to universal credit which has been in place throughout the Covid pandemic – saying the latter move could “plunge 20,000 children in Scotland into poverty”.

North Lanarkshire Council had increased school uniform grants by £30 in its March budget,

with education convener Frank Mcnally saying the grants would be “the highest in Scotland”.

He told the Advertiser: “The sad reality is that child poverty is on the rise across the country and urgent action is required to tackle this growing crisis, and North Lanarkshire Council is committed to leading the charge in this area.

“To support families on the lowest incomes, we have chosen to provide footwear and clothing grants of £140 per child to eligible primary pupils, £150 for secondary and to extend the grant to children in early years, becoming the first and only council to do so.”

Applications remain open for eligible families to apply for uniform grants ahead of the new term.

Sizing it up Eligible families will now receive £120 for primary pupils and £150 for secondary pupils