Charity donates £3,000 of school uniforms to help Peterborough families

A local charity has donated around £3,000 worth of school uniform to help families in Peterborough facing financial strain, with items available for free collection on Wednesday.

Family Voice Peterborough (FVP) said the uniforms will be available for parents and carers to collect at Ortongate Sports Bar from 12:00 until 13:00 BST on Wednesday. The donation is intended to ease the cost of essential school clothing for struggling households.

Louise Ravenscroft of FVP said the charity has seen an increase in families struggling with the cost of living and wanted to "help alleviate the costs." Kirsty Knight, an independent city councillor for Orton Waterville who is helping to organise the event, thanked the charity for what she described as an "incredible act of kindness, which will make a real difference to parents and children in our community." She also thanked Lloyd, the owner of Ortongate Sports Bar, for donating the space to host the initiative.

"This is about helping parents who are struggling with the costs of essential items for their children," Knight said. "As a mother of three, I understand how challenging the cost of school uniforms can be for families, especially during the current financial climate. I encourage anyone in need to come along and make use of this opportunity."

FVP works to improve services for children and young people with disabilities or additional needs. Ravenscroft said the organisation helps at least 30 families with children who have special educational needs and disabilities every month, and that demand has been increasing. "There are a lot of concerns with poverty, especially with parents with kids with special needs," she said. "We get an awful lot of requests for food support. There are a lot of families who are struggling. So anything we can do to alleviate their costs, we would absolutely do."

The donation follows other local efforts to reduce uniform costs. Last month, dozens of parents benefited from a uniform swap event at Queensgate Shopping Centre initiated by Peterborough's youth MP, Danielle Daboh, ahead of the autumn school term. A parent who attended that swap, mum-of-two Jessica Harper, said she had been trying to budget for uniforms and found the event to be "the perfect opportunity I needed without costing me so much money."

Organisers said the free collection aims to reach families who may be unable to afford new uniforms and to provide practical support ahead of the school term. The donation and the use of community space to distribute it reflect a wider local response to rising household costs, particularly for families caring for children with additional needs.