A study examined the different ways in which women and men accessed health services, with a view to providing an evidence base to help determine key gender health priorities for the government and the National Health Service.
Source: The Gender and Access to Health Services Study: Final Report, Department of Health (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
The government announced that it would propose an amendment to the Pensions Bill to allow people to buy up to an additional 6 years of voluntary national insurance contributions, over and above those permitted under the existing time limits, in order to enjoy a higher state pension. It said that the measures would offer a fairer deal to women and carers. They would benefit thousands of women who traditionally had incomplete national insurance records and therefore often received a low state pension. The proposals would apply to those who reached state pension age between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2015 and who already had 20 qualifying years on their national insurance record, taking account of home responsibilities protection.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Answers 28 October 2008, column 1577W, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | TUC press release | Consumer Association press release | Help the Aged press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | FT report | People Management report
Date: 2008-Oct
A paper set out a gender-impact assessment of recent reforms in income tax and tax credits. Gender analysis had not been a prominent aspect of policy-making by the government in recent years. Where gender-impact assessment had been used, it had not necessarily incorporated an examination of the impact of policies on social roles and power relations, as distinct from the distribution of resources.
Source: Fran Bennett, Gender, Tax Policies and Tax Reform in Comparative Perspective, Working Paper 30, Gender Equality Network, c/o Faculty of Social and Political Sciences/University of Cambridge (01223 334520)
Links: Paper
Date: 2008-Sep
A study examined the housing aspirations of second-generation south Asian and white British women. It questioned whether provision and services established to cater for first-generation migrants remained relevant for second-generation south Asian women.
Source: Bethan Harries, Liz Richardson, and Andri Soteri-Proctor, Housing Aspirations for a New Generation: Perspectives from white and south Asian British women, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700) for Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2008-Jun
A report examined services which provided advice to women in early labour. National Health Service trusts had introduced a range of different services for women in early labour: but in many cases there had been no evaluation of the impact of these changes. Women interviewed as part of the study expressed a need for consistent, clear advice and criteria for future contacts with midwifery services as labour developed.
Source: Helen Spiby, Josephine Green, Clare Hucknall, Helen Richardson Foster and Alison Andrews, Labouring for Better Effect: Studies of services for women in early labour, National Institute for Health Research/London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (020 7612 7980)
Date: 2008-Mar
A report described a qualitative research project in Glasgow which examined the effects of poverty on women's lives.
Source: Rachel Jury and Lauren Bianchi (eds.), Heat Or Eat? Women's experience of poverty in Scotland today, Poverty Alliance (0141 353 0440)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Mar
A think-tank report said that the overwhelming majority of births in England were safe, despite growing pressures on maternity services: but the lack of a systematic approach to ensuring safety across maternity services was creating unnecessary risks.
Source: Safe Births: Everybody's business – An independent inquiry into the safety of maternity services in England, King's Fund (020 7307 2591)
Links: Report | King's Fund press release | NHS Confederation press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Feb
The healthcare inspectorate said that more than half the maternity units in England were achieving a good overall standard. But it identified 31 trusts where maternity care for mothers and babies was falling below the approved standard. Common defects included a failure to recruit enough midwives for one-to-one care during labour, and inadequate checks on whether staff intervened effectively to prevent unnecessary caesarians.
Source: Review of Maternity Services 2007, Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (020 7448 9200)
Links: CHAI press release | DH press release | Kings Fund press release | RCN press release | MHF press release | FPLD press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jan
Date: 2008-Jan
The government said that eliminating mixed-sex wards from National Health Service hospitals was 'an aspiration that could not be met'. The government was committed to single-sex accommodation: but this could be achieved instead by splitting up mixed wards into bays.
Source: House of Lords Hansard, Debate 28 January 2008, columns 440-441, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | RCN press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report | BBC report
Date: 2008-Jan