The Scottish Government is currently running a consultation on school uniform. The intention of the consultation is to introduce national guidance which will inform local uniform policy decisions. It is not the intention to create a national policy on school uniform. 

In preparing our response to the consultation, we are keen to hear from parents, carers and pupils to ensure that the autistic experience is given due consideration in any guidance which is developed. 

The consultation document focuses on five key questions: 

Question 1 - what matters related to school uniform would you wish to be included within the guidance? Why? 

Question 2 - what role does school uniform have in the ethos and culture of schools? 

Question 3 - Following on from Question 2, are there any particular items of school uniform which are central to that? If so, why? 

Question 4 - What can schools do within their policies to support the aim of reducing costs of school uniform? [please give specific examples of approaches which could be considered or have been tried] 

Draft principles which are intended to be incorporated as part of national school uniform policy. 

The following principles have been developed and would be used to set high level parameters for school uniform policy and inform national guidance. 

Principles 

That national school uniform guidance should: 

• Be informed by the views of children and young people 
• Apply to education authority, grant-aided and independent schools 
• Seeks to reduce the cost of school uniform for families Supports equity in relation to school uniform 
• Promotes equality, including recognising specific matters relating to religion and belief, disability, sex and gender 
• Applies to all uniform uses, including PE and senior phase 
• Recognises the need for practicality, including in relation to seasonal needs 
• Reflects sustainable approaches to school uniform 
• Continues the position of no legal requirement upon pupils to wear school uniform 
• Considers appropriate response for persistent non-wearing of uniform, recognising ethos and culture of promoting attendance and reducing absence 
• Recognises and builds upon current good practice within schools 
• Does not introduce unnecessary barriers to school uniform policy and practices.  

Question 5 - Do you feel these draft principles are appropriate and, if you would change any of them, please set out what your alternative wording would be. 

If you would like to make your views on any or all of these questions known to us, please email our Media & Policy Office, Mark McDonald at mark.mcdonald@scottishautism.org by 5pm on Friday 30th September. 

Please note, Scottish Autism complies with the General Data Protection Legislation and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (2003). Your personal data is held securely and will only be accessed by those authorised to do so and used for the purposes for which you have provided us the information. For full details, please view our privacy policy. At any time you can request to be removed from our database by contacting us on 01259 720044 or emailing marketing@scottishautism.org.

We will share our consultation response on our website and social media channels once it has been submitted. 

We cannot guarantee that we will be able to respond to every individual who emails us, but we will ensure that the views expressed help to inform our response to the consultation.