Beverley Davis, incoming chair of the Cambridgeshire Police Menopause Action Group
The incoming chair of the Cambridgeshire Police Menopause Action Group says she is reassured by a new survey into menopause experiences and awareness in the Force.
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) today (Friday 18 October) released the results of its Menopause Survey to coincide with World Menopause Day.
Beverley Davis is set to take over on 1 November when the group’s current chair Chief Inspector Kate Firman retires from the Force.
She says she was encouraged by some of the results, particularly that 71 per cent of respondents in Cambridgeshire Police agreed they were treated with dignity and respect after telling their manager. Almost two in five (19 per cent) said that after telling their manager that they were experiencing symptoms of the menopause, their duties were officially changed.
However, Beverley said there was work to do around disclosure. The survey found that 61 per cent of respondents said they had disclosed to their line manager they were experiencing symptoms of the menopause, with 39 per cent not disclosing.
It found that ‘being worried about the effect of the symptoms on work performance’ (77 per cent) and ‘having difficulty coping with the symptoms’ (75 per cent) were the main reasons influencing their decision to tell their manager that they are/were experiencing symptoms of the menopause.
Beverley said: “There is still an issue with disclosure. We’ve moved someway but there’s still a large number of women in the workplace who don’t want to talk about it.
“But the survey shows that when they do, overwhelmingly they feel supported.
“It’s getting over that initial hurdle of disclosure and having confidence in the organisation that it’s okay, that we’ve got this with you, we’ll work with you, we’ll support you – but you’ve got to tell us.”
Key findings from the survey included:
- 79 per cent of respondents said symptoms of the menopause were either moderately or extremely problematic. The national figure was 83 per cent.
- Poor memory (84 per cent) and tiredness (80 per cent) were the top two symptoms cited as either moderately or extremely problematic at work. Nationally, tiredness (85 per cent) and sleep disturbances (81 per cent) were the top two symptoms.
- 68 per cent of respondents felt their job performance has been negatively affected by the menopause. Nationally it was 65 per cent.
- 28 per cent of Cambridgeshire Police respondents said the menopause had negatively affected their managers’ and colleagues’ views on their competence at work. Nationally it’s 30 per cent.
- 28 per cent of respondents said they had considered leaving because they have found it difficult to deal with the menopause at work.
- 12 per cent of respondents in Cambridgeshire Police said they had taken sickness absence because they were experiencing symptoms of the menopause. 64 per cent said they had attended work despite feeling that they should have really taken sick leave because of their symptoms, and 32 per cent said they had taken annual leave or rest days to take time off because they were experiencing symptoms.
- More than half (52 per cent) of managers said they would feel very confident in their ability to support someone they line managed who was going through the menopause; 37 per cent of managers would feel ‘somewhat confident’ in their ability; while 11 per cent of managers said they would either be ‘not at all’ or ‘not very’ confident in supporting someone going through the menopause.
- 12 per cent of managers in Cambridgeshire Police have been given training on how to support someone going through the menopause.
Beverley said: “We’ve still got more to do with training.
“We do have in-force training, we do have an in-force policy, but we have some colleagues who perhaps aren’t aware.
“It’s about increasing the general awareness of the policies, the guidance documents, and the training videos which are there to support managers.”
Beverley is currently local policing business partner. She has been with Cambridgeshire Police for 20 years, three of which were as a police officer just as she started going through the menopause aged 45.
“Becoming a police officer, the training, shift patterns, the uniform, exams and all of that just as I hit the menopause, it was extremely difficult,” she said.
“Three years later I decided that perhaps frontline policing wasn’t for me and returned to a police staff role.”
It was that experience that brought about her involvement in the Menopause Action Group.
Beverley said: “I got talking to a menopause SPOC (single point of contact), and was guided and sign-posted to the information we had at the time.
“I found it really beneficial to talk to somebody at work who understood my symptoms and situation.
“My mother had passed away a couple of years previous to me starting the menopause so I had no one to talk to, no reference point around me about what it might be like.
“It was stuff I didn’t want to talk about with friends, so being able to talk to somebody in the workplace I found extremely beneficial.
“In the workplace you are with people who share a similar environment, they will have an understanding of what it’s like to be too hot, or what it’s like to wear a stone and a half of additional body armour and PPE and having a hot flush at the same time.
“You get a level of understanding in the work environment you might not get elsewhere, which is why I found it beneficial to talk to someone in the workplace.”
Beverley spoke about her plans for when she takes over as Menopause Action Group chair.
“I’ve known Kate a long time,” she said. “She is guiding me through as she departs and I come on board.
“It’s building on the foundations Kate has laid.
“I’d like to do more about how we promote discussions with men.
I appreciate it’s women who go through the physical and psychological symptoms of the menopause but every man will have a spouse, a mother, a sister, someone who at some stage will go through it.
“How do we normalise this conversation around our male colleagues so that men feel comfortable talking about it?”
Beverley and the group have plenty planned for today to mark World Menopause Day.
The group is offering face-to-face drop-in and online sessions with its SPOCs to talk about the menopause and related issues.
They will be held at Force headquarters in Huntingdon, Parkside station in Cambridge, and Thorpe Wood station in Peterborough.
The group will be running an online chair yoga session at lunchtime delivered by a qualified teacher.
Beverley Davis, the Force’s local policing business partner and incoming chair of the Menopause Action Group, said: “The health benefits of yoga, particularly for women in the menopause are immense.”
The group will also be giving out goody bags with vitamins, mini fans and treats to mark the day.
Contact Beverley for more information on the Menopause Action Group.