Barnardo’s Scotland Briefing for Members Debate on Feminine Hygiene Products
27thSeptember 2016
Key Points
Introduction
Barnardo’s is the UK and Scotland’s largest children’s charity, and Barnardo’s Scotland works with more than 26,500 children and young people and their families in over 122 specialised services. Our services work with families and children who are living in poverty and facing multiple disadvantages. Many of our services are aimed at providing early intervention and support to families.
We welcome this debate on feminine hygiene products and commend the member for shining a light onto an area which is seldom discussedbut has the potential to cause distress to women and girls in Scotland.
The impact of poverty
Engender report that benefit cuts have had a disproportionate impact on women. [1] Since 2010, £26 billion worth of cuts have been made to benefits, tax credits, pay and pensions. 85% - around £22 billion - of this has been taken from women’s incomes. The impact of these cuts can be seen on the services organisations like Barnardo’s Scotland provide.
Our joint report with NSPCC, Challenges from the Frontline,[2] highlights that our family support services are working withmany more families who are presenting in a state of crisis, even where the service is designed and funded to deliver early intervention or preventative help. This appears to be largely a result of the cumulative effect of benefit sanctions, benefit delays, changes to tax credits and price rises for basic commodities such as food and energy. The severity of need is visibly growing. Barnardo’s Scotland services report that caseloads are increasingly complex, with a growing number of issues involved. In addition, Barnardo’s Scotland services are finding they need to meet basic material needs and stabilise home conditions before intensive family support work can begin.
Challenges from the Frontline also noted that there is a growing reliance on support from extended family, charitable donations and foodbanks to supplement income. Barnardo’s Scotland Service Managers interviewed for this report talked about referring families to recently set up food banks in their local areas, and stepping in with practical support such as money for fuel meters, furniture donations and clothing. Visits to families’ homes often revealed a lack of basic necessities such as warm clothing, bedding, toothbrushes and toilet rolls. As a result, services are increasingly using money which was previously used to fund extracurricular or more developmental activities to provide basic necessities.
Other Services reported that they were increasingly funding basics such as food and bus tickets and some of our services have reported handing out feminine hygiene products to women and girls using our services because they simply cannot afford to buy them themselves.These products are essential for women and girls, and it it is unacceptable that some must turn to foodbanks andthird sector services to access them.
Conclusion
Our services have, in the past, made feminine hygiene products available to women and girls on low incomes because affordability can be an issue for them. We believe this is an issue linked to poverty and gendered inequality and we would therefore welcome further exploration of the cost and affordability of feminine hygiene products in order to formulate a clearer picture of the impact this has on women and girls in Scotland.
Contact
Nicki Wray, Policy and Parliamentary Officer Barnardo’s Scotland –
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