Councillors vote to give free sanitary products to pupils

FREE sanitary products could soon be handed out to all schoolgirls in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Products such as tampons and towels could soon be provided for free at schools across the Vale after councillors gave their backing to a scheme tackling “period poverty” in the area.

Councillors will decide how to implement the plans after the council’s learning and culture scrutiny committee unanimously voted in favour of the idea on Monday.

A £1m fund from the Welsh Government has been launched to tackle period poverty, and councils including Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil are already developing similar schemes.

The committee heard some girls are missing school due to embarrassment regarding their periods, and some mothers are going without sanitary products so they can buy them for their daughters instead.

Councillor Jayne Norman, who called the debate, told the committee that free sanitary products should be “an automatic right to all”.

She said: “Menstruation affects every woman. We have no choice in the matter. And period poverty does exist – even in the ‘affluent’ Vale of Glamorgan. To many this topic is never discussed due to cultural or religious reasons.

“To many young women and girls, admitting that they are even having their period is embarrassing enough, without having to confess that their family cannot afford to buy them the sanitary protection they need. The protection which allows them the right of dignity and well-being.

“Many secondary schools already have some facilities in place to help alleviate this problem, but this is money spent out of their already very tight budgets. Junior schools, on the other hand, have to rely heavily on the generosity of staff members, or even in some cases, parents of some of the children.

“The facilities available to the pupils for the discreet disposal of any sanitary products is virtually non-existent.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council found seven of its eight comprehensive schools provide sanitary products free of charge, while one school charges 20p for each use. A total of 12 of the 16 Vale primary schools which responded to the council offer products free of charge, while at other schools parents or teachers provide them.

The committee was first asked to debate the issue in November but it has taken until April’s meeting to be discussed, the meeting was told.

Councillor Margaret Wilkinson told the meeting: “I’m disappointed this has taken a long time to come to this committee. This is a poverty issue. This is a hidden, quiet problem. Girls don’t want to talk about it. If we’re getting money from the Welsh Assembly that’s good but we don’t want to wait for it. We need this in now.”

The council will receive £31,500 from the Welsh Government this financial year for sanitary equipment to be installed in schools, and £8,666 to buy the products. A working group will be set up focussing on how the plan can be implemented. But it would need cabinet approval to purchase any products or equipment.

Ceri Reeves, secretary of period poverty charity Wings Cymru, told the meeting: “This is about girls not missing school for one week per month, girls not curtailing their activities for one week per month.

“We would like to help all people who have periods if they have issues but girls in schools seem like an easy one to tick.”