The staggering sum saved by parents in five days - all thanks to this simple concept

South Ribble Borough Council ran a pop-up shop from Sunday, August 3 to Thursday, August 7, and offered free school uniform for all schools across the borough, made up from donations from across the community. The council has now revealed that the pop-up shop supported 464 families - more than 1,800 people in total - and claims it saved in the region of £400,000.

The shop also saw representatives from the council’s social prescribing team on hand along with community partners to offer additional support to families who may be facing challenges.

Councillor Aniela Bylinski Gelder, Deputy Leader of South Ribble Borough Council said, “We are so proud that as a council we can co-ordinate projects such as this which supports families, helps children and saves people money. Once again, our school uniform pop-up shop has been supported by hundreds of people across the community through donations and I can’t thank all those people enough.

“In just five days we have saved families in South Ribble hundreds of thousands of pounds, but it’s much more than that. We’ve demonstrated what can happen when a community comes together to support each other and our additional support teams have been able to provide even more support to those families and individuals who need it.”

This year’s pop-up shop launched a year-round uniform support service where those in need of school uniform provision can contact the council through their Household Support Fund team to get support.

The service links families and individuals in with avenues of support right across the borough and alongside school uniform, can support with things like finances, mental health and loneliness concerns, housing and so much more.

For more information visit www.southribble.gov.uk/socialprescribing