The Department for Education has this week announced that the Government will offer free menstrual products to all Primary schools in England, including here on the Isle of Wight, from 2020.
This announcement is in addition to the pledge made by the Chancellor Phillip Hammond in his Spring Statement last month, when he announced that the Government would fund free menstrual products in all English secondary schools and colleges.
The latest information suggests that instead of launching a scheme for secondary schools and colleges in September 2019, the Government will launch a single scheme to include all schools in early 2020.
The Red Box Project – Isle of Wight has been supplying menstrual products to schools across the Island, free of charge, over the past 7 months and this will continue to be the case throughout 2019.
To date, more than 90% of the Island’s schools have at least 1 Red Box and the project will continue to offer boxes to the few schools which are yet to benefit from one.
Katharine Spencer-Brown, Isle of Wight Coordinator of the Red Box Project said:
“It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for – It’s terrific! The Red Box Project – Isle of Wight was set up to fill a gap in provision to help young Island students stay in school during their period, rather than having to miss out due to lack of sanitary protection.
“I couldn’t be happier that all our collective voices up and down the country have highlighted the very real issue of period poverty and that the Government has acted!
Article continues below this advertisement “Once the Government scheme is in place, the Red Box Project – Isle of Wight will cease. That is likely to be around this time next year based on the information we have so far.”
In the meantime, work will still take place to continue to raise awareness of the Red Boxes and continue to talk about period poverty as a way of trying to tackle the embarrassment of periods and the stigma still associated with menstruation.
