Women's Health Strategic Partnership Opportunity

Background and Scope

• Although women in the UK on average live longer than men, women spend a greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability. There are some conditions that uniquely affect women, while others affect women differently or more severely than men. Key issues include:
• Many women face challenges in reproductive health thorough out the course of their lives from puberty to menopause, with conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and severe menstrual pain.
• Over 80% of women experience period pain at some stage in their lifetime , but many do not know when they should seek medical attention for their reproductive health while those that do often report that their symptoms are dismissed or normalised rather than investigated.
• As women age, menopause-related hormonal changes raise the risk of osteoporosis and frailty, while post-menopausal obesity further increases the likelihood of breast and endometrial cancers.
• Around 1.5 million women are out of the workforce due to long term sickness, 200,000 more than men . Primary causes relate to mental health, musculoskeletal (MSK) and cardiovascular conditions, all of which women experience differently or more severely than men.
• There are significant health inequalities in outcomes and risk factors including those related to long-term conditions, nutrition, and lifestyle risks.
• These challenges reflect wider systemic barriers: women do not always have the knowledge and confidence to manage their own health and know when to seek medical care, and too often do not have their health concerns taken seriously. These barriers prevent women from accessing support, engaging with services, and having a positive experience of healthcare.
• The existing Women’s Health Strategy, first launched in 2022 to correct that imbalance, has made significant progress — improving awareness and access to services, and driving research to benefit women’s health. However, there is still much more to do. We are now renewing the Strategy to build on these achievements, to close remaining gaps, and to ensure that women’s voices continue to shape the policies and services that affect them.
• This renewal offers a vital opportunity to strengthen our collective commitment to delivering a health system that works for all women, at every stage of life.

Market engagement

• Following the market engagement events hosted by DHSC on Tuesday 3rd February and Wednesday 4th February 2026, DHSC is now seeking expressions of interest from organisations in the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) and private sectors to collaborate in support of improving women’s health.
• At the events we discussed the key barriers which align with these themes:

o Fragmented and difficult to navigate care pathways

o Dismissal and delayed diagnosis

o Social, economic, and structural inequalities

o Lack of education, awareness, and reliable information

• Market intelligence collected during the market engagement events highlighted that women in England continue to face barriers to accessing timely, equitable and high‑quality care, driven by several system‑wide issues. Women’s health services are characterised by fragmented and difficult‑to‑navigate pathways, which can have unclear referral routes, regional variation in provision, and long delays that contribute to missed or late diagnoses. Inconsistent specialist provision limits capacity across primary and secondary care, resulting in inequitable access to services such as menopause care and pelvic health support, while variability in clinician training can also undermine the quality and consistency of care.

Strategic Partnership Needs

• We recognise that addressing the complex challenges surrounding women’s health requires collaboration across sectors. We would like to collaborate with individuals or organisations that share DHSC ambition to improve women's health outcomes. We are open to a range of collaborative models and are particularly interested in contributions that may include:

o Financial or in-kind support

o Donations of goods or services

o Joint public awareness campaigns

o Access to networks, data, or expertise

o Programme suggestions/development

o Other innovative resources or approaches

• In return, DHSC may:

o Offer to collaborate with you around PR moments and provide recognition to the collaboration.

o Seek opportunities to promote outputs from the collaboration.

Engagement Process and Deadline

Those wishing to submit a proposal can do so by completing and submitting the questionnaire at the following link: forms.office.com/e/Rxbv8jvT1t ↗ Further guidance on how to complete the questionnaire can be found at the following link: atamis-1928.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/0O000000rwim/a… ↗

The questionnaire will close for responses at 12:00pm on 22nd April 2026. Responses after this time will not be considered.

DHSC recognises that organisations may wish to combine complementary skills, resources or experience by forming a consortium. We therefore encourage strategic partnership proposals from consortia where they strengthen capability, capacity or coverage. Organisations submitting a consortium proposal must nominate a lead organisation to submit the proposal and act as the single point of contact. They must also clearly outline the consortium membership including the roles, responsibilities and contributions of each consortium member.