4th May 2023
Following the announcement by the Department of Education to cut to the Period Products Scheme, INTO Northern Secretary Mark McTaggart said:
“The 40% reduction to funding for the period products scheme for schools across the north will once again have a detrimental effect on pupils and young people from the most economically disadvantaged areas.
As with all the funding cuts, this again shows a callous disregard for the needs of these communities, and while other bodies have taken seriously the needs of all young women, the Department of Education appears to have once again forgotten the role they are supposed to play in improving the life chances of young people.
This cut will put further stress on our poorer families, and on the health and wellbeing of these young women that the scheme was designed to help. It is time that the very politicians who approved the scheme in 2021 returned to the Stormont Executive and began to take responsibility for decisions on school funding and ensure that these decisions are in the best interests of our children and young people, rather than letting them be imposed from unelected bodies.”