Dundee City Council has taken an innovative, co-production approach to addressing period poverty in schools. Rather than simply providing free sanitary products, a team of staff and young people from two of our secondary schools - Braeview and Harris Academies - sought to change cultural norms by engaging in an awareness-raising and education programme. They worked together to create guidance and test the implementation of provision before this is scaled up to all of the city's schools. Young people were empowered to lead consultation with their peers, and created presentations to share at assemblies and in lessons. They chose the range of products and agreed how these would be accessed within their school and wider community. The team engaged with social enterprise 'Hey Girls' who design products with and for young people which have been positively received. The guidance produced, along with the tools such as lesson plans, presentations, order forms and posters created by young people, has been hugely beneficial to other schools.
The challenge
All local authorities have been asked by the Scottish Government to implement national policy which states that all schools must provide free access to sanitary products to pupils who menstruate. In Dundee, we decided to use improvement methodology to test the implementation approach within two schools and create policy guidance to ensure our systems were robust and designed for and by young people before provision was scaled up across all schools.
A team was brought together to take an innovative, co-production approach to addressing period poverty within schools during school term, weekends and school holidays. The team included staff and young people from Braeview Academy and Harris Academy, who worked together to create guidance and test the implementation of free sanitary product provision on behalf of all Dundee's schools.
The aim of this team was to ensure Dundee's approach meets the national guiding principles:
- protecting students' dignity
- avoiding anxiety, embarrassment and stigma
- making a range of products with different absorbencies available
- giving students choice about the products they want to use
- a response that is reflective of students' views and experiences
- an efficient and dignified approach with demonstrates value for money
- an offer for all eligible students throughout the year regardless of whether it is term time or holidays
- ensuring sanitary products are easily accessible to meet individual needs
- individuals being able to get sufficient products to meet their needs
- gender equality, ensuring anyone who menstruates can access products, including transgender men/non-binary individuals, and that language is gender neutral
- awareness raising and education to both promote the 'offer' and change cultural norms.
Actions and approach
From the outset we used Quality Improvement Methodology and took a collaborative approach with staff, young people and partners to plan and implement this project. Young people led the consultation in both schools with their peers. They collectively created presentations to share at school assemblies and in Personal and Social Education lessons as part of the Broad General Education and Senior Phase curriculum. The young people chose the range of products to meet their needs and agreed how these would be accessed within their school and wider community (e.g. working in partnership with The Corner).
We have broadened our approach to involve other schools and are continuously making improvements to the process. One of the challenges has been the procurement of products which meet the young people's needs. We have engaged with a social enterprise 'Hey Girls' who design products with and for young people and these have been positively received by Dundee schools.
Impact and results
As well as young people having access to sanitary products during school term, evenings and weekends, we want to increase the confidence of young people to have conversations on menstruation and period poverty and promote this as a 'normal part of life'.
In relation to data, we are measuring spend to date, the number of products and types of products purchased, and the estimate of uptake of the products. Due to this national policy starting in August 2018, the focus to date has been getting the approach, culture and process right. The hard data is our priority for implementation across all schools for 2019/20.
We are tackling the issues that matter most to young people by procuring the products which young people use as well as taking into account the sustainability and eco agenda which matter to young people (e.g. the menstrual cup, reusable and organic sanitary products) which also demonstrate value for money.
How is the new approach being sustained?
We continue to engage with the procurement team in Dundee and have recently extended these discussions to a Tayside Consortia Group to ensure we seek value for money and share Dundee's innovative approach with our neighbouring authorities. Moving forward, we are engaging with colleagues from NHS Tayside to explore the feasibility of accessing products in local pharmacies. We are also in discussions with Young Scot about the opportunities this may afford young people to access products via their Young Scot card.
Lessons learned
Rather than simply providing products to schools, Dundee City Council sought to change cultural norms by engaging young people and staff in an awareness-raising and education programme around period poverty. By involving young people in this process from the outset, we have captured the willingness and motivation of young people to lead and model this culture change programme.
Next steps
We now have Dundee policy guidance on the implementation of free sanitary product provision for all our schools created by young people. This guidance has been hugely beneficial to enable other schools to use the tools the young people have created (e.g. lesson plans; presentations; order forms; posters). Our guidance and implementation process has been shared across the Tayside Collaborative and shared with other Dundee City Council services.
To find out more about this case study, please contact:
Tracey Stewart
tracey.stewart@dundeecity.gov.uk
01382 434672