Women's Health Plan - phase two: lived experience focus groups report

1. Introduction

In August 2021, the Scottish Government published the Women’s Health Plan setting out an ambitious vision to ensure that all women and girls living in Scotland experience the best possible health across their lifetime.

As part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to gather the views of women and girls to inform the second phase of the Women’s Health Plan, five third sector organisations working in Scotland were commissioned and funded to carry out focus groups. This report provides a summary of the key findings from the focus groups.

1.1 Organisations

The following five third sector organisations carried out the focus groups:

Age Scotland aims to improve the lives of people over the age of 50 living in Scotland. They campaign to ensure that the needs of older people are addressed by policymakers at both local and national levels.

British Heart Foundation Scotland (BHF) supports people living with heart and circulatory disease through campaigns to raise awareness of issue to policymakers and funding vital research.

CEMVO Scotland offer training, development and advice to over 600 third sector organisations working with ethnic minority communities in Scotland to support them to build their capacity and sustainability.

Simon Community Scotland provides support to people who are experiencing or who are at risk of homelessness. They also offer support to people once they have secured a safe home to aid their recovery from the experience of being homeless.

The Young Women’s Movement aims to raise awareness of the rights of young women living in Scotland. In response to the views of young women, their current focus is advocating for young women’s right to access to adequate health and reproductive care.

1.2 Participants

The Women’s Health Plan a adopts a life course approach, acknowledging that experiences at different stages of life shape health and wellbeing over time. Therefore, it was important that the experiences of girls and women living in Scotland of varying ages were explored in the discussions. The focus group discussions included the views of 99 participants, ranging from girls in their early teens to women up to 90 years old. Participants were recruited from across both rural and urban areas in Scotland.

The Women’s Health Plan is underpinned by an intersectional approach recognising that many women and girls in Scotland will face multiple, and often overlapping, disadvantages and barriers to accessing good healthcare. Intersectionality acknowledges that there are many different factors that make up people’s identities, for example their sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, disability, religion and more. Therefore, participants included women from different ethnic minority groups; those identifying as being from the LGBTQ+ community; women living with life-long health conditions and those who have experience of homelessness and substance use.

Informed consent was sought from all participants involved in the discussions.