Highly commended
‘The Truth, Undressed’: Achieving Policy Wins for Intimate Health Education
by Incisive Health for Bayer Consumer Health
Summary of work
Only 6% of women report learning about their intimate health in school and university education – a gap in knowledge that acts as a barrier to women taking control of their health.
The Truth, Undressed, a social purpose initiative from Bayer Consumer Health UK, is founded on the principle that every girl and woman should be empowered to understand their body without metaphor, euphemism, oversimplification or sexualisation.
We believe that early education is the key to helping girls and women form positive relationships with their vulvas, and vaginal health, that last a lifetime. To make this ambition a reality, we set out to change the Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) statutory guidance for England to include specific reference to anatomical terminology (like vulva and vagina) and intimate health.
In just two and a half years, we’ve created a cultural and policy shift from embarrassment to empowerment. Supported by high quality teaching resources and free-to-access information, we’ve secured the inclusion of intimate health education in the mandatory RSHE curriculum – a major milestone in women’s health that will deliver a transformative impact for the next generation.
Judges’ comments
‘The Truth, Undressed’ clearly defined the issue it was facing. It had a well set out challenge with SMART objectives, a clear strategy and a well implemented programme (especially given budget). Engagement with the content was strong for the topic and it delivered against the desired outcome. It moved the needle.
