Providing sanitary products within ambulance trusts varies greatly and for those who do offer this service, it is hampered by problems including existing machines in the toilets not working, products being chargeable, irregular re-stocking of products and a lack of variety and environmental products.
For employees at Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), not having contingency support from the trust when being caught short with sanitary products resulted in them leaving work to purchase products during shift time and left them feeling unsupported.
An idea submitted out of frustration to YAS’s innovation platform, Simply Do, suggested providing communal baskets or lockers of products for staff to use and was picked up by Victoria Connelly, QI Fellow and Deputy Chair of the YAS Women and Allies Network.
The aims
- To ensure that people who have periods and require products feel safe, supported and empowered in the workplace.
- To have free sanitary products available within the accessible and female toilets at YAS headquarters by March 2023.
- To provide contingency and safety for our staff and to minimise the risk of staff needing to leave part way through a shift.
- To scale and spread the project across the trust by November 2023.
The process
- Initial four week trial in trust HQ to provide free sanitary products in the female and accessible toilets, limited to six of each product (sanitary pad and tampon), to re-stock three times per week and monitor usage as well as collecting qualitative data via QR code on baskets. Products were gained from staff donations, a local supermarket and through low quantity purchasing.
- Five month trial with ancillary staff to monitor and re-stock the products over a longer time period to identify any patterns or toilet areas which have higher usage levels and to test different means of storage and gain staff feedback.
- To permanently implement the provision of sanitary products at call centre locations including trust HQ, NHS 111 Callflex and the Emergency Operations Centre in York.
- To scale and spread the initiative trust-wide across all sites.
Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles were undertaken following this, which included:
- Four week trial at HQ monitoring and re-stocking with products available in small baskets.
- Six month trial at HQ, monitored and re-stocked by the ancillary cleaner staff. Stock purchased by the trust and available in small baskets.
- Continuation of trial at HQ, monitored and re-stocked by the ancillary cleaner staff. Stock purchased by the trust, change of storage to avoid over-stocking, and to mount on the wall in each toilet area.
From each PDSA cycle it was important to consider the process of monitoring and re-stocking the products in line with staff feedback and requirement.
The ancillary team and procurement team were integral in ensuring the success of the trial and monitored the stock daily during the first trial to give a baseline number of products to be purchased.
This led to a larger stock order being purchased through the supplies budget and re-stocking to continue through the ancillary team.
The feedback from the initiative showed that the range of products provided were used equally and that this should continue alongside the suggestion of having sustainable and re-usable products also available.
Scale and spread
Based on the success of the trial period at YAS HQ a permanent and recurrent source of funding was then required to scale and spread the initiative to all 74 trust sites, across 140 total female and accessible toilet areas.
This was achieved through the supplies budget, as well as agreements to deliver stock to sites.
This is now a part of permanent and recurrent funding in the annual budget. Re-stocking of products on-site is agreed to be part of the ancillary staff tasks, and the storage used in PDSA 3 showed to be a success due to the ability not to over-stock and the ability to continually provide feedback and comments.
