Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how she plans to monitor and assess the effectiveness of voluntary Menopause Action Plans before they become mandatory.

We recognise the significant impact that menopause symptoms can have on women and how crucial effective workplace support can be.

The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) has launched voluntary action plans, encouraging large employers to publish how they are supporting employees experiencing menopause, as well as the steps they are taking to address their gender pay gap.

OEO published detailed guidance to support employers in developing their action plans.

As part of this, we provided a list of evidence-informed actions that include tangible steps employers can take to support women managing menopause symptoms at work. These were developed using insight and research at the time of writing on what was effective. They include:

• Training managers to support employees experiencing menopause
• Offering employees experiencing menopause tailored occupational health advice
• Offering tailored workplace adjustments for employees experiencing menopause – whether that’s uniform or working in a cooler area
• Setting up menopause support groups and networks
• Advertising flexible working arrangements and leave policies in job adverts

The guidance also suggests ways to track progress, collect data, and monitor the effectiveness of an organisation’s chosen actions. We will work closely with business to evaluate whether these are the right actions and keep them up to date, as well as support them to monitor the impact of the actions they adopt.

Further details regarding the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of action plans as a broader policy intervention will be provided as we progress the secondary legislation required to make action plans mandatory.