Agenda item

To provide an overview of the council’s action to tackle period poverty through the Period Dignity Brent project.

The Chair began by thanking Brent Youth Parliament (BYP) for putting this item forward on the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and shining a spotlight on the issue, before asking Councillor Mili Patel (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources) to introduce the item.

In introducing the report, which provided an overview of the Council’s action to tackle period poverty through the Period Dignity Brent Project, Councillor Mili Patel reminded members that the work around access to menstrual products had begun in 2020, following the work of the Poverty Commission which had emphasised the barriers that women and girls in particular faced regarding inequalities. The Commission had recognised that period poverty and lack of access to essential products was a barrier for people who menstruate to be able to continue in education and employment. She highlighted that, following that work, the Council had relooked at period poverty as a policy, and rebranded the language from ‘poverty’ to ‘dignity’. The policy and project aimed to provide education and awareness of period dignity to break down barriers whilst remaining sensitive to the demographics and cultures in Brent. Through a collaboration with ‘Hey Girls’, free period products were now being provided in Council-owned buildings such as the Family Wellbeing Centres, Hubs, Libraries, New Horizons, Sufra and Brent Food Banks. She added that the report detailed the success of the project and identified the learning made, with the aim to continue to evolve the work.

In continuing the introduction, Tom Pickup (Policy and Performance Manager, Brent Council) highlighted that, whilst the Committee had asked to understand the scale of the issue within Brent, with the information available it was not easy to measure in local areas. The report instead tried to capture the scale of poverty in Brent and supplement that with the level of uptake of the Period Dignity Project. The updated offer aimed to ensure the project provided free period products across Brent sites, tackled stigma and provided education around period dignity and trained staff on the frontline distributing period products so that they understood the issues around period dignity. The new offer had been live since November 2024, and, based on the level of uptake there was a clear need. The next steps would be to continue running the project and embed it as business as usual across the services and sites that were distributing the products.

Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council) concluded the introduction by reiterating thanks to BYP for focusing attention on this topic. He added that the Council had surveyed secondary schools on whether they provided free period products and all of the schools who had responded, which was the majority of Brent secondary schools, had confirmed they were taking part in the programme.

The Chair thanked the presenters for their introductions and invited the Committee to ask questions of the officers, with the following points raised:

The Chair invited BYP to begin the questioning, who asked what was being done in this area for young people who were not in education, including in relation to the awareness raising and educational aspect of the project. Tom Pickup explained that the project was focused on education across all Brent sites, so when someone attended a site where products were available, there were educational materials available to make clear why the products were there and other information that helped to tackle stigma. There was currently nothing targeted specifically at those groups because it was a general universal offer. Any young people accessing those sites, such as Family Wellbeing Centres, would be exposed to the products and materials in those settings. Serita Kwofie (Head of Early Help, Brent Council) added that data showing the number of requests for restocks in the Family Wellbeing Centres demonstrated a clear need for the offer, and there was good take-up of the various products available due to the strong foot-flow of young people attending Family Wellbeing Centres. Nigel Chapman thanked BYP for the challenge in relation to children not in education, as there were a number of school-aged children who were electively home educated. He agreed to take an action to ensure the School Attendance Service followed this up with parents to see if they were aware of the offer when doing their annual checks.

BYP also asked whether free products were provided to young people in care and care leavers. Nigel Chapman advised that there was an expectation that foster carers and semi-independent providers used the allowance they were provided to purchase products the young person would need, and Looked After Child Reviews and Social Worker Visits ensured checks were made into whether the young person was getting what they required.

From a cultural perspective, the Committee highlighted that stigma around periods could play a part in period dignity, and asked how the project addressed that, including with emerging communities and from a language point of view. Tom Pickup explained that there had been broad communications around the offer across various Brent channels to increase the outreach of what was available. When people attended locations where products were available, there were educational flyers available for anyone to take, and practitioners working on those sites may identify a need and provide education more discreetly.

The Committee asked how they could be assured that the offer was being monitored in a meaningful way to ensure there were no gaps in the offer. Tom Pickup advised that the monitoring was done at a high-level, based on uptake rather than at a granular level, because to get that more detailed information there would be a need to ask what could be considered a personal question.

In relation to transitional phases in terms of age, the Committee asked if there were any gaps in the offer. Rachel Crossley (Corporate Director Service Reform and Strategy, Brent Council) highlighted that there were no barriers because the awareness raising and access was universal and not targeted at particular people, age groups or protected groups.

The Committee commended the project and the work happening in Council venues and schools, but wanted to see the work go further. They highlighted that there were communities with young adults who may not be at school, who may be from overseas, or who may be going into low paid jobs, and asked whether the project brought awareness of the offer to those communities. Tom Pickup responded that the report reflected the first stage of the refreshed approach and affirmed that the aim was to expand the offer, including the awareness and educational element, working with other partners such as Brent Health Matters and the voluntary sector to share the offer.

The Committee asked whether these products and materials were distributed in gyms. Rachel Crossley advised that a lot of the gyms in Brent were private sector organisations and the Council would encourage them to do similar programmes themselves and have a social responsibility around that rather than fund them. This could be encouraged during procurement and commissioning stages. She would look into whether the offer was being extended to Brent-owned Leisure Centres, and asked members and BYP to let officers know of any venues that might be missing the products.

Noting paragraph 3.2.7 of the report, which stated that only 50% of the possible organisations had been engaged, the Committee asked whether that figure included primary schools. Officers confirmed that primary schools were included in that figure because people could start menstruating at primary school age. The Committee also queried how much engagement the project had with faith schools. Councillor Mili Patel advised that the pilot was conducted in Council-buildings only, but schools had their own project providing free products. Schools had been surveyed so if there were any faith schools on that list that information could be provided.

In relation to paragraph 3.2.12, which stated that it was difficult to understand the levels of uptake due to issues with data collection, the Committee asked how officers planned to resolve that so that the offer could be monitored and delivered correctly. Officers explained that the initial pilot had ceased collecting data during the trial, so there had been an improvement since then now that uptake of products was measured. The level of uptake of the services distributing the products was now being used to understand the scale of need.

BYP emphasised that period dignity was a major area of concern for Brent Youth Parliament, who’s current national campaign was on period dignity and means testing. Noting paragraph 3.2.24, which stated that there was uncertainty from staff about whether these products were being accessed exclusively by people in need, BYP raised concerns about the comment which they felt reinforced period stigma by questioning who was using the products when they should be universally available. Tom Pickup explained that, in this particular instance, there was a library where staff felt unsure whether the people they saw taking the products were in need. Irrespective of that, he acknowledged that it was a subjective judgement and the offer was universal, allowing anyone to take the products. In response to why that comment had been included in a public report, it was explained that this spoke to the education piece that was needed for staff around perpetuating stigma.

The Chair drew the item to a close and invited members to make recommendations with the following RESOLVED:

i)               To develop a plan to incentivise private sector organisations to offer similar products and information.

ii)              In developing projects and policies, to ask young people for their opinion, not just through BYP but other youth groups in the area.

iii)             For any future report on pilots, to ensure a more structured way of evaluating the pilot, what the learning was, and what would be done for the future.

During the course of the discussion an information request was made, recorded as follows:

i)               Toprovide the list of schools that had confirmed they were providing free period products.