Fire service praised for menopause support

A fire and rescue service has been accredited for supporting employees going through menopause.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was "incredibly proud" to be awarded the Menopause Friendly Accreditation after its work supporting women.

The service had to demonstrate to independent inspectors its effectiveness in culture, training, policies, colleague engagement and working environment.

Hayley Douglas, menopause champion for the service, said the workplace should be somewhere that conversations about menopause can be had "without embarrassment".

She added that staff were "incredibly proud" of the accreditation.

"It validates all the work we have done over the past few years to understand the impact of menopause symptoms on the many different roles people do in our fire service and to ensure the right support is in place," she said.

"But most importantly, it has been about making our workplace somewhere that conversations about menopause and the impact of symptoms can be had openly without embarrassment or fear of being treated differently."

The service introduced mandated awareness training, updated guidance, risk assessments and put up posters promoting common symptoms.

It also improved toilet and welfare provisions for fire crews at incidents.

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