Have you been told that you can’t have more than 4 continence products a day, even if your child needs more? Read on to find out how to get the products you need.

Our Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project helps families who are struggling to get the support they need from health or social care services. Last year, we told you how we had helped Louise get continence products for her daughter, Rhiannon, who’s 9 years old and has Wolf-Hirschorn syndrome.

The local continence service had told Louise that it couldn’t supply more than 4 continence products per 24 hours, even though Rhiannon needed more because of her condition.

We noticed that the Welsh Government’s guidance on continence products contradicted itself – one part said that the number of products supplied would depend on a child’s individual needs, but another part said that there was a strict limit of 4 pads per day and that families who needed more would be told to buy their own. We wrote to the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Health to highlight the problem and we were told that the guidance would be reviewed.

We’re very pleased to report that the Welsh Government has published a Welsh Health Circular , which has replaced the old guidelines with the new ‘Guidance for the provision of continence containment products to children and young people’.

The Welsh Government accepted our argument that the strict limit of 4 pads per day was “inconsistent with public law principles and a breach of children’s dignity and it does not take into account the need for a full assessment”. The new guidance makes it clear that while four pads per day may be enough for most children and young people, the number of products supplied to families should always meet a child’s individually assessed needs.

If you’ve been told that there’s a limit on the number of products you can have and you live in Wales, tell your local continence team about the above guidance and/or use our template letter to make a complaint. We also have a separate template letter for parents who live in England.