Female School Pupils’ Welfare

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 17 October 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:36, 17 October 2018

Thank you, Jane. As you rightly identified, the money that was made available via my colleague the leader of the house was split into capital and revenue streams. The £700,000 capital has been used to invest in school toilet facilities, to ensure that they are designed and have the facilities available to enable girls to manage their periods with dignity. The revenue aspect of the grant has been distributed to local authorities, because the Government believes that they are in the best place to decide how best to distribute products. And that is being done through either community hubs, food banks or a number of projects that exist in local areas. We have asked local authorities to provide information to Welsh Government on how the grants have been spent, and early indications demonstrate that there have been a variety of interesting ways in which that money has been utilised.

With regard to product in schools, some local authorities have made products available in school, but all schools should have made it very clear to pupils where they can obtain free products within their school environment should they be needed. I understand that the leader of the house has not made a decision yet as to funding in the future, but, clearly, any funding decisions will be influenced by the feedback from the utilisation of the funding to date.