For almost a decade, large organisations have been required to report their gender pay gap.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 takes this further. The new Equality Action Plans move organisations from reporting figures alone towards setting out what they are actually doing to improve workplace gender equality and support employees experiencing menopause.

The plans are voluntary during 2026/27 and are expected to become mandatory from spring 2027, subject to secondary legislation.

From reporting to action

The government has set out 18 evidence-informed actions across five areas of workplace gender equality. Six specifically relate to supporting employees experiencing menopause:

• train managers

• offer occupational health advice

• set up menopause support groups and networks

• offer workplace adjustments

• conduct a menopause risk assessment

• review policies and procedures.

If you have 250+ employees

You can publish an Equality Action Plan now, ahead of the expected mandatory requirement from spring 2027.

The current framework requires organisations producing a plan to select at least one action to address their gender pay gap and at least one action to support employees experiencing menopause.

So now is the time to review the six menopause actions: what is already embedded, what is in progress and what still needs attention?

If you have fewer than 250 employees

You don't currently need to produce an Equality Action Plan, but employment law changes introduced through the wider reforms still need to be understood and implemented where they apply.

Check that your policies, procedures and systems reflect current requirements around areas such as flexible working, sickness absence and Statutory Sick Pay. Existing duties under equality and disability law, including reasonable adjustments where applicable, also continue to apply, alongside relevant health and safety responsibilities.

The six menopause actions can also provide a useful framework for reviewing the support you already offer, even though you aren't required to produce an Equality Action Plan.

Menopause takes centre stage, but menstrual health matters too

The action plans specifically focus on menopause, while the accompanying guidance acknowledges that some of the recommended actions may also benefit employees experiencing endometriosis, fibroids and PMOS, previously known as PCOS.

There is a wider workplace framework too. BS 30416: Menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace considers all three areas rather than treating menopause in isolation.

Menstruation, perimenopause and postmenopause are different stages of one menstrual health timeline, so workplace education and support can be relevant well beyond one particular stage.

What has changed with Statutory Sick Pay?

Severe period pain or heavy bleeding has always been capable of being sickness absence if it makes someone too unwell to work.

What changed in April 2026 is Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Eligible employees can now receive SSP from their first full day of sickness absence rather than waiting through the previous three waiting days.

This can be particularly relevant to menstrual-health challenges that cause short episodes of absence.

There is no separate category of “menstrual-health sick leave”. If severe period pain, heavy bleeding, endometriosis or another menstrual-health challenge makes someone too unwell to work, it can be treated as sickness absence in the same way as other illness.

It also raises a practical workplace question: do employees feel able to give the real reason for their absence, or are people still describing severe period pain as a “bad stomach”?

Support doesn't have to be delivered entirely in-house

One of the six menopause actions is to establish support groups and networks.

The implementation guidance suggests training internal staff or using external experts to lead respectful discussions. For organisations without the capacity to build and maintain this internally, inviting external experts to lead discussions provides another option, without the need to train your own personnel to be a Menopause Champion, for example.

The guidance also encourages allyship, suggesting that colleagues who are not experiencing menopause can be invited to certain group or network meetings. Guest speakers and information shared across the organisation can help build wider understanding too.

For organisations looking for an external option, Lumyn Health from The Menopause School provides ongoing education and support from menstrual cycles through perimenopause to postmenopause, with employees able to access sessions directly.

Start by asking

One of the first steps in the government's action-plan guidance is to understand the issues within your organisation. For support groups and networks specifically, employers are encouraged to use surveys or focus groups to find out what employees need before deciding what to put in place.

Do employees know what support is already available? Would they use educational sessions or live Q&As? Would they value reliable information they can access privately? Would direct booking with an outside provider make them more likely to access support?

The Menopause School has created a free two-minute Employee Menopause & Menstrual Health Survey to make that first step simple. You can access it HERE. It looks at awareness and understanding, what support employees would use and how they would prefer to access it.

Ask first. Then you can make informed decisions about what your organisation actually needs.