Supporting the Women’s Health Plan – Programme report 2022-2024

The ALLIANCE has been working with Scottish Government to deliver activity on women’s health.

The Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) has been contributing to progressing women’s access to health information and services throughout its history as a third sector champion of lived experience. Ensuring that women are informed and supported with their health is an important element of ensuring that our services are inclusive, flexible and person centred. This sits at the heart of our commitment to addressing health inequalities and tackling barriers in our society.

The ALLIANCE has been delivering a women’s health programme since 2022 working with the Scottish Government in support of the Women’s Health Plan 2021-2024. Over this time, we have aimed to create opportunities for women to share their experiences to influence progress and innovation, whilst also ensuring that supportive and comprehensive information on women’s health is readily available and accessible.

This report outlines the highlights over the last two and a half years of our programme. You will find details of our activity and its impact, information about the reach of our work, and reflections from lived experience stakeholders, third sector organisations and community groups that we’ve worked with.

Read the report here: Women’s Health Highlights Report 2024

For any queries on the programme and the report please contact Jennifer Stewart, Senior Development Officer – Women’s Health, at Jennifer.stewart@alliance-scotland.org.uk

The Scottish Government have published their own report detailing the work since 2021 to make progress on women’s health as part of the Women’s Health Plan. You can read it here: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781836016687

A ‘Women’s Health Plan: Review of the Data Landscape’ has been published as an accompaniment to this Final Report. This document sets out a range of publicly available data on the health of women in Scotland and highlights where there appear to be gaps.

The ALLIANCE women’s health programme continues. To stay up-to-date with our work, including events, resources and opportunities to get involved, subscribe to our mailing list – email whp@alliance-scotland.org.uk

ALLIANCE Director Irene Oldfather reflects on the work of the programme so far:
“You’ll see from reading through our report that we’ve been on quite a journey. Our programme of work was based on the priorities that women themselves identified. Amongst many other things women told us that they wanted to feel listened to; to have access to information that was clear and concise; and for there to be proactive discussions around stigmatised topics which remained a barrier for so many to access support. These are just some of the areas we’ve focused on which you can find details of within this report. Thank you to everyone who came on the journey with us, who supported us and shared their experiences.”

Notes

[1] The ALLIANCE programme 2022-2024 follows on from previous engagement work in 2020 and 2021 to hear from women about their experiences of accessing services in Scotland, which informed the development of the Women’s Health Plan. Information about that engagement can be found in a survey report and events report.

[2] The Women’s Health Plan and the ALLIANCE’s programme uses the term ‘women/woman’ throughout but it is important to highlight that it is not only those who identify as women who require access to women’s health and reproductive services. All healthcare services should be respectful and responsive to individual needs.

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