PARLIAMENTARY: Period Products Free Provision Scotland Bill - Call for views

As nurses we are well placed to make a real difference on the issue of period poverty. Whatever setting nursing staff work in, they will undoubtedly come into contact with people who are menstruating and for whom this may be causing knock-on physical, social or mental effects.

We welcome the Scottish Government’s action to address period poverty by making free sanitary products available to students in schools, colleges and universities across Scotland, in addition to its partnership with FareShare and other organisations to distribute period products to those on low incomes. These are important steps but there are many more vulnerable people in our society who could continue to struggle to access appropriate period products each month.

Menstrual health has been high on the agenda of the RCN Women’s Health Forum for some time now. At this year’s RCN Congress one of the forum members, who is a sexual health nurse, proposed a resolution on period poverty in order to bring the RCN’s unique nursing perspective to the campaign to tackle period poverty. The following resolution was debated and passed by RCN members:

“That this meeting of Congress calls upon Council to lobby governments across the UK to end period poverty.”

RCN Scotland therefore strongly supports the campaign to end period poverty and the overall aim of this Bill.