The Department for Education (DfE) programme offers tampons, pads, and menstrual cups as well as other environmentally friendly products.
It launched in January 2020 after the issue was brought to national attention three years ago by student Amika George and her #freeperiods campaign, which highlighted the fact that more than 137,000 UK children have missed school because of period poverty.
Menstrual products cost women £13 a month and 40 per cent of UK girls say they have used toilet roll because they cannot afford them. Furthermore, one in 10 girls are unable to pay for these essential products, according to 2017 research from charity Plan International UK (for more, see our coverage here).
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