Overview
The Women’s Health Strategy for England (Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), July 2022) sets out 10-year ambitions for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system listens to women.
Although women in the UK live longer on average than men, the evidence shows they spend a greater proportion of their lives in ill health or disability when compared with men (The King’s Fund, 2024). Based on evidence from the government’s ‘Women’s Health Strategy: Call for Evidence’, which nearly 100,000 women in England responded to, and feedback from local systems, there are a number of issues with women’s health services.
The aim of Women’s Health Hubs is to bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women’s health services, centred on meeting women’s needs across the life course, where care is not limited to interventions for a single condition but instead is wrapped around the needs of an individual woman, which may be multiple needs. Ultimately, the goal of Women’s Health Hubs is to improve access to and experiences of care, improve health outcomes for women, and reduce health inequalities.
The issue
While women make up 51% of the population, historically the health and care system has been “mostly designed by men, for men” (Matt Hancock, 2021).
This ‘male as default’ approach has been seen in research and clinical trials, education and training for healthcare professionals, and the design of healthcare policies and services (BMA, 2022). This has led to gaps in our data and evidence base which mean that that not enough is known about conditions that only affect women, for example menopause or endometriosis. It has meant that not enough is known about how conditions that affect both men and women impact them in different ways, for example cardiovascular disease, dementia, or mental health conditions. It has also resulted in inefficiencies in how services are delivered. For example, we know that many women have to move from service to service to have their reproductive health needs met, and women can struggle to access basic services such as contraception (BPAS, 2024).
The impact of failing to put women at the heart of health services has been clear to see through the number of recent high profile independent reports and inquiries in cardiovascular care, medicines and medical devices, surgical care, and maternity.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (HIOW ICB) conducted a periods and menopause survey on behalf of the HIOW Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Women’s Health Programme Board with the aim to seek lived experience of how periods and the menopause impact lives and work.
Insights from this survey will identify where people want to access women’s health information, support, and health services, as well as informing opportunities for developing women’s health services.
The survey was codesigned with local people with lived experience of HIOW women’s health services, members of the HIOW ICB readers’ panel, alongside a range of stakeholders.
What we did
Health Innovation Wessex sit on Women’s Health Programme Board established by HIOW ICP. We offered to support the dissemination of the periods and menopause survey to ensure we heard from diverse voices across HIOW.
Health Innovation Wessex provided an interim report based on 405 submitted responses to the ICP periods and menopause survey to identify demographic groups and geographical areas that needed to be targeted to increase representation within the remaining survey period and to inform the formation of subsequent focus groups. The survey period was then extended as a result of our interim findings.
When the survey closed, Health innovation Wessex analysed 1,150 responses providing quantitative and qualitative data analysis. We produced a report of survey findings using women’s voices to the ICP to inform future health services provision. We collaborated with the programme board ensuring the findings were visually impactful. The findings demonstrated where people wanted to access women’s health information, support, and health services they need, as well as informing opportunities to improve healthcare services to ensure women are involved in decision making in the future.
Health Innovation Wessex also produced a public-facing response to the survey with high-level findings and next steps – keeping the public up to date.
The survey findings provided by Health Innovation Wessex directly informed the development of HIOW ICBs Empowering Women’s Health two-day event held in March 2025. The data was presented and used to curate the sessions around the findings – listening to women’s voices.
Who we worked with
Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB | Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICP Women’s Health Programme Board | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Voluntary Community Social Enterprise Health and Care Alliance (HIVCA)
What impact did it have?
- The ICP Women’s Health programme board now have both quantitative and qualitative evidence of women’s lived experiences to inform future service design to improve services and women’s health care and experiences – this data was reflected back to the board and their feedback was incorporated into the visuals of the report. This means the board is fully engaged with the planned work in the future.
- 1,150 women were surveyed and provided their experiences and voices of where they want to access women’s health information, support, and health services they need. Health Innovation Wessex prepared an online public-facing response to the survey with high-level findings and next steps for women of HIOW.
- The findings inspired an impactful 2-day Women’s Health event and directly informed the curation of the sessions. The qualitative and quantitative data was presented and used to acquire key speakers to create focussed panel sessions.
- The findings have directly influenced* the ICP’s next steps and their decision to continue women’s health as a distinct piece of work beyond the allocated funding for the development of women’s health hubs.
* alongside the Dorset Innovation Scan and Wessex Health Partners Research in women and girls’ health report.
Next steps
- Focus groups are being run subsequent to the survey findings by HIOW Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Care Alliance (HIVCA). The aim of which is to reach those voices often unheard and minoritised groups that were under-represented in the survey.
- HIOW ICB will be contacting people who indicated in the survey that they would like to be involved in shaping services further. Initially, they will aim to get an understanding of the level of involvement individuals would like.
- Insights from this survey will identify where people want to access women’s health information, support, and health services they need, as well as informing opportunities for developing women’s health services.