Staff support
Menopause support: how can care providers help?
Sara Catanzaro, design manager at Alsico, explains how the workwear manufacturer joined forces with leading care representative Care England to drive improvements in menopause support throughout the UK care sector
According to a 2023 report by Skills for Care – Adult Social Care Menopause Guidance for Managers and Staff – one in five women say their menopause symptoms have a detrimental effect on their work. Further, one in ten have even considered leaving their job. Over half of the working population will experience symptoms of menopause in their lifetime. Yet it is still rarely talked about. Keen to make a change, global
workwear manufacturer Alsico and leading representative body for care providers Care England brought together carers from providers across the UK for an event entitled Menopause Matters in Birmingham in October 2024.
Alsico takes an innovative approach to designing uniforms to ensure that they are comfortable, durable, and affordable, consulting wearers so that garments can be tailored to their specific needs. Its approach has led to successful bids with the NHS National Healthcare Uniform Framework and NHS Supply Chain. The emphasis Alsico has put on developing uniforms which have wearer feedback at the core of the design is what motivated the manufacturer to team up with Care England to develop an event centred around menopause. Delivered alongside Care Show Birmingham at the NEC, the event focused on creating a space that would both educate and empower carers in their workplace. Throughout the day, carers were able to discuss their experience and listen to
January 2025
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others who are currently or have already experienced the menopause. Resources were also provided to help attendees and their colleagues. Carers were also joined on the day by
expert speakers including menopause campaigner and Menopause Support founder Diane Danzebrink, Care England chair Angela Boxall, raw materials and R&D expert Naiomi Beaumont Swindlehurst, and Caren Burton, chief people officer at care provider Majesticare.
Common challenges
A panel discussion and focus group session gave attendees the opportunity to share their lived experience of the menopause. These conversations highlighted how, for too long, many people have suffered in silence, remaining quiet due to a fear of stigma or not knowing how people around them would react when they discussed how they were feeling.
On top of this, attendees stated that
there was a lack of clarity around the support available to employees within the workplace, with less than half knowing their company’s policy around menopause and only half knowing who to ask for support or guidance.
When asked about the impact of the menopause on work, everyone agreed that it had affected their ability to work. On top of this, more than a fifth said that they had taken unplanned leave due to menopause. The affect it has had on people’s day to day lives highlighted the necessity to enhance support within the care sector and make it easier to access. But conversations did not just reveal a lack of support for those experiencing the menopause, many were even shocked to find out that a lot of the symptoms they were experiencing were, in fact, symptoms of the menopause. This highlighted that actually, education needs to start with helping people to understand what the menopause is and how it can affect them so
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