Campaigners in Dartford have said they welcome government plans to provide all primary schools with free sanitary products, but said they are sceptical on how this will be rolled out.

Last week, the Department for Education announced that primary school pupils across the UK will have access to period products from as early as 2020.

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Backed by Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi, funding for tampons and sanitary towels is be extended to primary schools after it was announced last month that these products would be offered to secondary schools free of charge.

"This Government is determined to ensure that no-one should be held back from reaching their potential and wants everyone to lead active, healthy, happy lives.

"That is why earlier this year we committed to fully-fund access to free sanitary products in all secondary schools and colleges in England.

"After speaking to parents, teachers and pupils, we are now extending this to more than 20,000 primary schools so that every young person in all our schools and colleges gets the support that they need," said Minister Zahawi.

Speaking on this decision, founder of the Dartford Red Box Project, a branch of the national community initiative which collects and provides free sanitary products to schools across the UK, Kelly Grehan has said that although this is a welcome news for the group, there is a shared concern on how this scheme will operate and whether it will reflect Red Box’s fundamentals.

"We welcome the government plans.

"Our concern is on how the scheme will be applied and hope it runs to the same principles as our project, which is that girls are welcome to take a pack or two and supplies for summer holidays.

"Being given one or two individual sanitary towels or tampons doesn't really help," said Kelly.

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Mrs Grehan, 38, along with friend Sarah Crook, 41, started Dartford Red Box last May and have since managed to set up 20 boxes at local schools and youth centres within the borough.

The Dartford groups will continue to collect after the roll-out as they also collect for the local winter night shelter and some nearby mental health facilities.

"We have had a fabulous response to Red Box Project with people donating weekly, running collections at events and at their workplaces, which is indicative of people understanding the need that exists.

"We have had some lovely emails from women saying they had this problem at school and how much it had impacted on their confidence and education.

"We would really like to thank everyone who has supported us over the last year with this project.

"The change in policy really shows the strength of community campaigning," said Mrs Grehan.