Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government is taking steps to ensure that menstrual wellbeing is part of the national school curriculum; and if he will make a statement.

The current Sex and Relationship Education Guidance 2000 sets out at 2.8 that schools should make adequate and sensitive arrangements to help pupils cope with menstruation and with requests for sanitary protection.

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 places a duty on the Secretary of State for Education to make Relationships Education, in primary schools, and Relationships and Sex Education, in secondary schools, compulsory in all schools. The Act provides a power for the Secretary of State to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE), or elements therein, mandatory in all schools. The decision on PSHE is subject to careful consideration.

The Department recently conducted an engagement exercise to seek evidence on what should be included in these subjects. The Government will develop the regulations and statutory guidance for these subjects for public consultation. These subjects will continue to ensure that pupils are taught about menstruation, complementing what is already included in the National Curriculum for science.