Schools and food banks could get money for sanitary items

SCHOOLS in the Vale of Glamorgan may soon have an £8,000 fund to give sanitary products to pupils for free.

Each food bank in the Vale would also be given £100 for sanitary products under plans which will be urgently recommended to the council’s cabinet.

It comes after a council working group decided how to spend the Vale’s share of a £1m Welsh Government scheme to tackle period poverty across Wales.

Some girls have missed school because they cannot afford sanitary products, and in other cases mothers have gone without so their daughters can have them, previous council meetings have heard.

If the council’s cabinet approves the plan, £8,175.05 of Welsh Government funding would be used to provide freely available sanitary products and emergency clothing for primary and secondary schools.

Schools would be encouraged to make the resources free to all pupils who need them, that access is widely advertised, and pupils can access enough items to cover more than their immediate needs.

The funding would be allocated to cover the needs of all pupils, not just those on free school meals.

Schools would be allocated the money based on the number of pupils in year five and above. Primaries would get at least £30 each, while a minimum of £100 would be given to secondary schools.

Separate Welsh Government funding of £31,512, given to the Vale to install sanitary equipment, would be used to improve the toilet facilities in Holton Road Primary School “to ensure dignity and privacy for pupils”.

The recommendations will be considered by the cabinet.

Initial relief packs of sanitary products were sent to schools earlier this year while the council worked out what to do with the rest of the funding.

The packs were funded by a £1,170 donation by Unison. There is £209.05 left over from Unison’s grant, along with £490.95 from the Welsh Government’s grant, would be used to provide the products in the foodbanks.