Access to free period products in educational settings during the 2018-19 academic year: monitoring and evaluation report
We carried out an evaluation, supported by COSLA and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), of access to free period products in educational settings during the first full academic year of delivery, from 1 September 2018 to 31 August 2019.
Footnotes
1. "Period products" means products the purpose of which is to absorb or collect menstrual flow and includes tampons, sanitary towels and products which are reusable.
2. E.g. Free Periods
3. Figures reflect women and girls in Scotland aged 12 (the average aged of menarche) to 54 (the average age of menopause) years. There currently exists no statistics on the number of menstruating trans men, although this figure is expected to be low.
4. Additional poverty analysis 2019 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
5. This figure reflects the number of female primary and secondary school pupils aged 11 and above, the headcount of female students at further education institutions in Scotland and the number of female enrolments at higher education institutions in Scotland.
6. Young Scot Corporate - Access to Sanitary Products
7. 1 in 10 girls have been unable to afford sanitary wear | Plan International UK (plan-uk.org)
8. phs_periodpovery-whitepaper.pdf
9. The Period Products in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk)
11. Robert Gordon University, North East Scotland College, 3 secondary schools and 1 primary school where universal provision was offered. Just over 1,000 participants received products during the pilot: 799 via the community/third sector partners, 43 at RGU, 108 at NESCol and 133 at the four schools involved.
12. Membership from Scottish Government teams comprised: Colleges; Young Workforce and Scottish Funding Council Sponsorship; Higher Education and Science; Education Analytical Services; Communities Analysis Division; Support and Wellbeing Unit; Empowering Schools Unit; Collaborative & Scottish Government Procurement Division; Social Justice Delivery Unit.
13. External membership comprised: COSLA; Colleges Scotland; Universities Scotland; College Development Network; Young Scot; National Union of Students; Scottish Funding Council; Scotland Excel; Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges Ltd (APUC).
14. For local authorities, an assumed uptake rate of 35% has been used for funding allocations in 2018/19 to 2020/21. For colleges and universities, an uptake rate of 35% was used for 2018/19 and 2019/20 allocation, but 10% was used for colleges and 15% for universities in 2020/21 to reflect the data on estimated uptake rates.
15. An annual product requirement is defined as 300 disposable period products per person. Administrative costs are covered as a price per head of £5.
16. The unit price of disposable period products is used to calculated annual product costs. For local authorities, a unit price of 11.6p has been used for funding allocations in 2018/19 to 2020/21. For colleges and universities, a unit price of 11.6p was used in 2018/19 and 2019/20 and 19.0p was used in 2020/21 – the latter reflecting the 'real' unit price of products purchased by these institutions.
17. Local authorities have received funding based on 35% of female school pupils taking their full annual product requirement, defined as 300 products at 11.6p each.
18. In 2018/19, funding was provided on the basis of 35% of female college students taking their full annual product requirement, with the amount transferred scaled to cover the 8-month period between 1 August 2018 to March 2019 and included a one-off development allocation of £0.32 million). In 2019/20, the funding allocation transferred was the full-year funding allocation minus the reported underspend from 2018/19. Based on monitoring data, 2020/21 allocations were based on 10% of female college students taking their full annual product requirement.
19. In 2018/19, funding was provided based on 35% of female college students taking their full annual product requirement, scaled to cover the 8-month period between 1 August 2018 to March 2019 and included a one-off development allocation of £0.46 million). In 2019/20, the funding allocation transferred was the full-year funding allocation minus the reported underspend from 2018/19. Based on monitoring data, 2020/21 allocations were based on 15% of female university students taking their full annual product requirement.
20. Note that the publication of this report was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
21. Disposable period products refers to sanitary towels and tampons.
22. Based on figures for the number of female secondary school pupils at September 2018 from the 2018 Pupil Census.
23. Primary and special school pupils aged 11+ at June 2019, plus all female secondary school pupils at September 2018 based on data from the 2018 Pupil Census.
24. The total number of disposable period products purchased by each local authority was divided by the total number of period products required if all female secondary school pupils accessed period products from their school to meet their full annual requirement (300 multiplied by the total number of female secondary pupils within that local authority).
25. This figure decreases to 13% when primary and special school pupils aged 11 and above are included. It is unlikely that all of these pupils are menstruating so this figure likely reflects an underestimate of uptake.
26. Disposable period products refers to sanitary towels and tampons.
27. Based on data from 30 local authorities.
28. Based on data from 27 local authorities.
29. Based on data from 11 local authorities.
30. Based on data from 9 local authorities.
31. Based on data from 8 local authorities.
32. Note: One local authority did not report spend for the period from 2 February to 31 August 2019 so any costs incurred during this period have not been included in the total, hence the reference to 'at least'. Spend reported for the 1 September 2018 to 1 February 2019 period has been used for this local authority.
33. This comprised £1.2 million for the 8-month period from 1 August 2018 to 31 March 2019 and £1.8 million for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.
34. Reflecting the full 2018/19 product allocation, plus 42% of the 2019/20 product allocation to cover the five-month period between 1 April to 31 August 2019.
35. For completeness, spend against the full 2018/19 and 2019/20 product funding allocations was also calculated. This showed that product spend reflects 24% of the full 2018/19 and 2019/20 product funding allocations.
36. Note: One local authority did not report spend for the period from 2 February to 31 August 2019 so any costs incurred during this period have not been included in the total, hence the reference to 'at least'. Spend reported for the 1 September 2018 to 1 February 2019 period has been used for this local authority.
37. Including 20% VAT, the total additional spend was £588,312.
38. This comprised £171,000 for the 8-month period from 1 August 2018 to 31 March 2019 and £260,750 for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.
39. Reflecting the full 2018/19 administration allocation, plus 42% of the 2019/20 administration allocation to cover the five-month period between 1 April to 31 August 2019.
40. The total number of disposable period products purchased by each college/university was divided by the total number of period products required if all female students accessed period products from their college/university to meet their full annual requirement (300 multiplied by the total number of female students at the institution).
41. Based on this data, the uptake rate assumption used for the calculation of 2020/21 funding allocations was revised down to 10% in colleges and 15% in universities.
42. Disposable period products refers to sanitary towels and tampons.
43. This comprised £2.0 million for the 8-month period from 1 August 2018 to 31 March 2019 and £3.1 million for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.
44. Reflecting the full 2018/19 product allocation, plus 42% of the 2019/20 product allocation to cover the five-month period between 1 April to 31 August 2019.
45. Including 20% VAT, the total additional spend was £622,048, comprising £406,624 among colleges and £215,424 among universities..
46. 'Bleedin' Saor'
47. Bloody Big Brunch comes to Edinburgh Napier
48. YS_Access_Period_Products_Report_UPDATED.pdf (squarespace.com)
Contact
Email: socialresearch@gov.scot
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