Back-to-School Backpacks: Supporting Children in the UK and Europe

A new backpack, a pencil case, a notebook that is all yours. Getting ready for school should be a small, exciting ritual for every child. For millions of children across the UK and Europe, those basics are never a given. Pencils run out, notebooks fill up and bags wear through all year long, and for many families every replacement raises the same question: how do we pay for it?

A Need That Is Often Unseen

Many children who go without school basics are growing up in our own towns and cities. Their families are working hard and doing their best, often putting their children first, and the need goes unnoticed simply because it is rarely talked about. It can affect any family, including those of people we work alongside every day.

The latest Households Below Average Income statistics from the UK Department for Work and Pensions, published in March 2026, show that 27% of children, around 4 million, were living in relative poverty after housing costs in 2024/25. That is roughly 8 children in a class of 30.

According to the UK Government’s 2026 child poverty analysis, almost three in four children in relative poverty live in working families, where at least one parent or carer has a job. Many are families working hard to make ends meet, where an extra cost like a new school bag can be difficult to cover.

Across the EU, Progress Has Stalled

The picture across the European Union is similar. Eurostat figures published in April 2026 show that 24.3% of children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, essentially unchanged from 24.2% the year before. That is nearly one in four children in the EU, and the share has barely moved.

These figures measure household income and living conditions rather than school supplies directly. What they show is how many families start each school year with very little room to absorb extra costs.

School Costs Add Up All Year

For families on tight budgets, school costs never really stop. Uniforms, shoes, bags and supplies need replacing as children grow and term follows term. The start of the school year is often the sharpest point. In Scotland, nearly one in three parents (32%) told Save the Children in its 2026 Big Summer Survey that they expected to go without things themselves to manage the cost of their children returning to school.

The rising cost of living means rent, energy and food already take a bigger share of every pay packet, and school costs land on top. When something has to give, it is often a parent’s own needs, or the small items that help a child feel ready to learn alongside everyone else.

Why a Backpack Matters

A full backpack is practical. It holds the tools a child needs to take part in lessons from day one. It is also about belonging. Turning up with the same basics as everyone else means one less thing for a child, and a parent, to worry about.

Every CTW Events school backpack is packed with care by the people at your event. A typical backpack includes:

• a sturdy backpack
• a pencil case with pencils, pens and highlighters
• notebooks
• a ruler and a calculator
• a handwritten note of encouragement from the person who packed it

Once your event is booked, CTW Events finds a charity partner supporting children and families that needs the backpacks, and arranges delivery timing with them. Backpack experiences can run at any time of year, because children need school supplies in every term, not just in September.

How Your Next Event Becomes the Place Where Support Happens

Your organization already brings people together at conferences, offsites, kick-offs and office days. Most of those agendas include time for connection or team building. With CTW Events, that time becomes employee volunteering with a result everyone can see: a stack of finished backpacks heading to a partner supporting children and families in your community.

It is also the easiest way for busy people to take part. Work commitments are the most common barrier to volunteering in England, cited by 51% of people in the DCMS Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26. A kit experience inside your event happens in work time, so everyone can join in.

How a CTW Events backpack experience works

1. You tell us about your eventShare the date, the city, roughly how many people and the format. A Breakout brings the whole group together in one agenda slot. A Walkthrough lets people drop in across the day.
2. We find the right charity partnerCTW Events matches your event with a charity or community partner supporting families and children that needs the backpacks.
3. We bring everythingCTW Events sources the backpacks and supplies, ships the materials and sets up the build stations.
4. Your people buildTeams fill backpacks together and write notes for the children who will receive them. Your people bring the care. We bring everything else.
5. Backpacks reach the partnerFinished backpacks are handed over to the receiving partner, with CTW Events supporting the handover.
6. You share the resultEveryone leaves knowing exactly how many backpacks they built together and where they are going.

Real Backpack Experiences in Europe

Example: 2,100 Backpacks for Children in Romania

In December 2024, CTW Events joined forces with Volvo Group and Save the Children International for an afternoon of hands-on community support near Amsterdam. Together, participants assembled 2,100 backpacks filled with essential school stationery for children in Romania. Read the full case study.

It is a great example of how simple this can be. Volvo Group and Save the Children International sponsored the build, volunteers from partner organizations brought the energy, and CTW Events handled the planning, materials and setup. Once packed, the backpacks were sent on their way to children in Romania. It also shows that school support has no season: this build took place in December.

CTW Events has also partnered with Save the Children on its Make Summer Fair campaign, where backpacks built by teams can support Save the Children’s learning programs.

The same end-to-end delivery sits behind CTW Events kit experiences across the UK and Europe:

Planning Tips for Event, People and CSR Leads

• Run it any time of year. Children need school supplies in every term, so a backpack experience fits any event on your calendar, as the December build for children in Romania shows.
• Think about where your people are. Tell us the city, and CTW Events will look for a charity partner supporting children near your office or venue, which makes the story more meaningful for everyone in the room.
• Share the why, with care. Open the session with one clear fact so people understand who the backpacks are for, remembering that some colleagues’ families may have experienced this themselves.
• Plan your content early. Agree photo consent up front, and never photograph children receiving kits unless the partner has documented consent.
• Celebrate together. Share the number of backpacks your people supported and what the partner can now offer the children it works with, so everyone can see the difference in their community.