Everything you need to know about Menopause Action Plans

Menopause action plans have gone from HR best practice to a legal obligation in under a year. If you're a UK HR or benefits leader working out what's required, by when, and what a good plan looks like, here's the detail.

What is a Menopause Action Plan?

A menopause action plan is a written, published document setting out the specific steps an employer is taking to support employees experiencing perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause at work.

A menopause policy and a menopause action plan aren't the same thing. A policy is a statement of principles: your organisation's position on flexible working, sick leave, or how managers should approach conversations about symptoms. An action plan is narrower and more accountable. It names concrete, evidenced actions, states whether each one is new or already embedded, and gets published alongside your gender pay gap data.

A policy alone won't satisfy the legal requirement. The Employment Rights Act 2025 requires large employers to produce a specific document: the action plan.

Is a workplace menopause action plan a legal requirement?

Yes, but the timeline and the detail matter.

From April 2026, employers with 250 or more employees can publish a voluntary Equality Action Plan alongside their annual gender pay gap report. It covers two things: steps to reduce the gender pay gap, and steps to support employees experiencing menopause.

From spring 2027, publishing this plan becomes mandatory for those same large employers, under the Employment Rights Act 2025, the first UK legislation to reference menopause explicitly. Mandatory reporting is expected to apply from the 2027 to 2028 reporting year, subject to secondary legislation.

A few caveats worth knowing before you brief leadership on this:

• The threshold is 250+ employees. Smaller organisations aren't currently in scope, though the government is encouraging voluntary adoption, and gov.uk guidance for smaller employers is expected to follow.
• It sits inside a wider Equality Action Plan, not a standalone menopause law. "Menopause action plan" is shorthand for the menopause half of that duty; the other half covers the gender pay gap.
• Menopause still isn't a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. But menopause symptoms can, and increasingly do, underpin sex, age or disability discrimination claims, particularly where symptoms have a substantial, long-term effect on someone's ability to do their job. Employers may then have a duty to make reasonable adjustments regardless of the new reporting rules.
• Tribunal risk is already rising. Acting now, ahead of the 2027 deadline, cuts legal exposure and shows employees you're taking this seriously.

What should a menopause action plan include?

The government has published a list of 18 recommended, evidence-informed actions, grouped into five categories. Employers must select at least two actions in total: one addressing the gender pay gap, and one supporting employees experiencing menopause. The guidance encourages going beyond that minimum.

The five categories:

• Recruiting staff: inclusive job design and flexible working from day one.
• Developing and promoting staff: mentoring, sponsorship and progression support.
• Building diversity into the organisation: setting representation targets (get legal advice before committing to formal targets).
• Increasing transparency: on pay, promotion and reward decisions.
• Supporting employees experiencing menopause: the category most directly relevant to a workplace menopause action plan.

Within that fifth category, the actions employers most commonly select:

• Training line managers to understand menopause and perimenopause, and to have confident, sensitive conversations with their teams
• Offering access to occupational health advice, including specialist menopause support
• Setting up confidential menopause support groups or employee networks
• Running menopause-specific risk assessments to identify workplace factors that could worsen symptoms
• Providing tailored adjustments: flexible or remote working, rest spaces, uniform and temperature control
• Reviewing existing HR policies and procedures to check they're fit for purpose

For each action selected, employers must state whether it's new or in progress, or embedded (already established practice). At least two of the actions chosen must be new or in progress, not a restatement of what's already in place.

How to structure and submit your plan

Government guidance sets out a six-step process:

1. Understand your organisation's issues. Use workforce and gender pay gap data to diagnose where support is needed.
2. Choose your actions. A minimum of two from the 18, split as above.
3. Write supporting narrative. Up to 100 words per action, plus up to 200 words summarising the plan overall.
4. Submit the plan via the government's gender pay gap service, alongside your pay gap data.
5. Track outcomes. Monitor whether the actions you've committed to are landing.
6. Review annually. Plans aren't a one-off; they're expected to evolve year on year.

The guidance also encourages employers to think about overlapping disadvantage: how menopause support might need to differ for employees with other health conditions or from different backgrounds. Use workforce demographic data to choose actions that are relevant to your workforce, not generic.

What a strong menopause action plan includes

The strongest plans typically combine:

• A named clinical or specialist support offer, rather than a generic EAP line that few employees use
• Manager training that's mandatory. Most tribunal-relevant failures trace back to an untrained line manager
• Data-led targeting: using absence, attrition and engagement data by age and gender to show where support is landing and where it isn't
• A clear owner and review cadence, so the plan doesn't sit static between annual submissions

Menopause-related attrition is expensive to replace. A credible, well-evidenced plan is a retention and employer-brand lever as well as a compliance exercise.

FAQs

Is a Menopause Action Plan a legal requirement for UK employers? It's voluntary from April 2026 and becomes mandatory from spring 2027 for employers with 250 or more employees, under the Employment Rights Act 2025.

What's the difference between a menopause policy and a menopause action plan? A policy sets out your principles and general commitments. An action plan lists specific, evidenced actions you're taking or plan to take, states whether each is new or embedded, and is published alongside your gender pay gap data.

Which employers need to publish a menopause action plan? Private sector employers with 250 or more employees. Smaller employers aren't currently in scope but are encouraged to adopt the same approach voluntarily.

How many actions does a menopause action plan need? A minimum of two actions overall: at least one addressing the gender pay gap and at least one supporting employees experiencing menopause, chosen from the government's list of 18 recommended actions.

Does menopause count as a disability under UK law? Menopause itself isn't a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. However, where symptoms have a substantial, long-term effect on someone's ability to do their job, they may meet the legal definition of disability, triggering a duty to make reasonable adjustments.

Peppy provides clinician-led menopause support to employees, and works with HR and benefits teams to build the evidence base, usage data, outcome data, and employee feedback, that turns a compliance-minimum action plan into one that moves retention and engagement.