TO BE PUBLISHED May 2026
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This conference will examine key priorities for women’s health in England.
Following recent publication of the Government’s Renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England, it will bring stakeholders and policymakers together to discuss delivery priorities for effectively improving access to care, tackling inequalities, and advancing innovation in treatment moving forward.
Delegates will consider next steps for integration of women’s health into broader NHS reform, including the shift outlined in the 10 Year Health Plan towards community-based, digitally enabled, preventative care - alongside assessment of progress and remaining challenges following the 2022 Women’s Health Strategy for England.
Key considerations for embedding accountability mechanisms and long-term funding needed to sustain delivery will also be examined, including proposals to establish a women’s voices partnership to bring together organisations advocating for women and inform future policy. Discussion will also consider implementation timelines, workforce planning, and support for integrated care boards in addressing ongoing pressures.
Care pathways, women’s health models & the National Cancer Plan
The agenda will explore practical options for improving pathways and experience of care for women, looking into priorities for gender-sensitive training so women’s symptoms are recognised and acted on quickly and consistently.
The planned introduction of new payment approaches linked to patient experience will also be examined, including how these are expected to influence reimbursement for NHS trusts - with some gynaecology services likely to be prioritised initially - and implications for service improvement.
Sessions will consider what is needed to sustain and coordinate women’s health models across the NHS, including lessons learnt so far from developing Women’s Health Hubs, the potential role of neighbourhood health centres in delivery, and funding and workforce priorities within integrated care systems. Funding streams for conditions predominantly or exclusively affecting women will be discussed.
Further sessions look at broader opportunities for delivering more efficient joined-up care pathways and reducing fragmentation across physical and mental health services, including options for rolling out local examples of effective practice more widely.
We also expect the new National Cancer Plan for England to be a focus. Delegates will discuss next steps for improving screening, developing community-level diagnostics, and addressing regional variation in service quality for women.
Maternity care - communication, responsiveness & reducing delay
The conference will examine priorities for improving maternity care quality and safety. It comes with the ongoing National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation led by Baroness Amos expected to report this spring, with the recent interim report highlighting capacity pressures, persistent inequalities, and a lack of transparency as key concerns. Areas for discussion include approaches for improving communication and information-sharing, and access to community-based support, as well as strategies for reducing diagnostic and treatment delays - particularly across gynaecological and mental health services.
Inequalities - tackling key areas of disparity & improving use of data
In assessing next steps for addressing health inequalities - including regional and ethnic disparities - we expect discussion on strategies for enhancing the utilisation of data to inform personalised care, and priorities for driving prevention and early intervention, including improving screening uptake and partnership working with voluntary, community and social enterprise groups.
Latest thinking on how to tackle factors that contribute to women spending more time in ill health will be discussed, including strategies for supporting those living with chronic conditions and multimorbidity, and what is further needed to enable improved speed of diagnosis and access to treatment. This includes approaches to improving pain management pathways for both procedural and chronic pain, priorities for improving understanding and treatment of conditions that disproportionately affect women, and strengthening informed consent processes and choice of pain relief during gynaecological procedures.
Education, training, workplace priorities & reducing stigma
Sessions will examine priorities for enhancing education around women’s health conditions, for both healthcare professionals and the public. This includes boosting community outreach in underserved populations, alongside ways forward for improving training pathways and addressing knowledge gaps to ensure initiatives - such as menopause advice in routine health checks - can be carried out sensitively and effectively. Priorities for improving knowledge in early life will also be addressed, including commitments within the strategy to strengthen education for girls on menstrual health in school and community settings.
The conference will also bring out latest thinking on effective practice for employers in better supporting women’s health in the workplace, including strategies for developing supportive policies for menopause, menstruation and fertility challenges, as well as pregnancy.
Strategies for tackling potential stigma, including approaches to ensuring that women feel able to seek mental health support, will also be considered - with a recent BACP survey indicating that almost two in three women in the UK aged 50 and over struggle with their mental health, with almost 9 in 10 of those affected not seeking help.
Research, digital innovation & the evidence base
Following recent indications from the National Institute for Health and Care Research that funded research should take account of sex-based differences, strategies for strengthening women’s health research will be examined, including widening access to clinical trials and improving evidence and treatment development for female-specific conditions, or those which disproportionately impact women. Attendees will consider priorities for addressing knowledge gaps in diagnostics, treatment efficacy, and understanding of disease progression, alongside next steps for ensuring equitable funding.
The way forward for women’s involvement in design of digital tools will also be considered, including addressing concerns about gender bias in artificial intelligence-driven tools and strategies for safeguarding against this, as well as how emerging technologies can be used to improve access to care, bridge data and research gaps, and help tackle health inequalities. Priorities for streamlining adoption will also be examined, in light of the recently introduced £1.5m FemTech Challenge Fund.
All delegates will be able to contribute to the output of the conference, which will be shared with parliamentary, ministerial, departmental and regulatory offices, and more widely. This includes the full proceedings and additional articles submitted by delegates. As well as key stakeholders, those already due to attend include officials from the Department of Health and Social Care; Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency; UK Health Security Agency; HM Prison and Probation Service; Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; and Ministry of Justice.
