Women's health plan 2021 to 2024: final report

Introduction

The Women’s Health Plan was published in August 2021 and sets out how the Scottish Government intends to address inequalities in women’s health outcomes. It includes 66 actions over six priority areas: menopause, menstrual health, endometriosis, abortion and contraception, post-natal contraception and heart health. The Plan focuses on creating the conditions that can change culture, support women’s health and tackle the inequalities that have affected women’s health for generations.

This report sets out the progress made towards the delivery of the actions in the Plan in the three years since publication. The report is set out by ‘priority’ and details the progress made in the short, medium and long term actions. Within the report, our Women’s Health Champion Professor Anna Glasier shares her reflections on her time in post and the progress of the Plan. The report highlights progress on the cross-cutting actions, on contraception, abortion, sexual health and pre-pregnancy actions and how improvement has been driven forward on menopause and menstrual health including endometriosis. Further sections highlight how actions on heart health and gender and health are moving forward, with the report concluding by looking forward to the Plan’s second phase.

The Plan’s actions are divided into short-term (one year), medium-term (one-to-three years) and long-term (three years or more) timescales. Many of the long-term actions in the Plan address long standing, complex and often systemic issues and were therefore designed to continue beyond the lifespan of this phase of the Plan. Work to progress these long term actions will continue between this and the next phase of the Women’s Health Plan and will act as the policy bridge, whilst work continues on the next steps.

This report can be read alongside the previous reports on progress; first Report on Progress and second Report on Progress.