Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to provide tailored information about menopause for (a) autistic people and (b) people with learning disabilities.

We have launched a women’s health area on the National Health Service website, alongside new and updated pages which includes a menopause page and a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medicines hub. The NHS England Menopause Improvement Programme has created ‘The Menopause’ factsheet which will help individuals understand and manage their perimenopause and menopause and direct them to further sources of information.

NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers must comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) to meet the communication needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss. NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communication needs are met in health and care provision. The revised standard will be published in due course.

Following publication, NHS England will continue work to support implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.