We're tackling women’s health inequalities across Sheffield.
Earlier this year, to coincide with International Women’s Day, we launched our campaign to tackle women’s health inequalities across Sheffield. Women play a pivotal role in everyone’s health – from their own health during pregnancy, through to the care they give to others throughout their lives.
There’s a wealth of data which demonstrates the need for improved support for women in Sheffield. Research has shown that the women and girls’ sector is not getting anywhere near sufficient investment. As such, there are social, moral, and economic reasons to invest in tackling women’s health inequalities in Sheffield.
Watch the campaign video below, which we posted to launch the #NoWomanLeftBehind on International Women’s Day 2025, where Reverend and the Makers’ Laura McClure and Sheffield United Women FC players have joined influential female leaders from across Sheffield to lend the charity their support.
Our three focus areas:
Maternal health
Ethnically diverse women, and women from more deprived areas are statistically more likely to experience worse maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Startling statistics show that women in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to die during the perinatal period than women in the least deprived areas, and Black women are almost four times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or the postnatal period than white women; Asian women are twice as likely to die than white women.
The work will help women to get ready for, and care for their baby. Through this, we aim to reduce the health inequities which play out in the acute setting but are as a result of social deprivation outside of the hospitals. By supporting mothers, this work seeks to reduce the incidences of pre-term birth, maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and the likelihood of adverse childhood experiences in the early years.
There is also a longer-term view for this work. Dental decay, obesity and poor vaccine uptake are all significantly worse in Sheffield children than the national benchmark, with MMR vaccinations falling short of herd immunity thresholds. Adults who experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in early childhood are 4.9 times more likely to have memory impairment, 4.7 times more likely to have depression, 2.3 times more likely to get cancer and 2.1 times more likely to have a cardiovascular disease.
The antenatal period is a key moment to provide additional support to women. By laying the foundations for improved engagement with healthcare services for mother and baby, this work will help to tackle the challenging health inequities we see in Sheffield. We aim to get a programme of work running within the financial year.
NHS staff affected by domestic abuse
A UK survey of 2,200 nurses and midwives found 14% had experienced abuse in the past year (vs 4.4% in the general population). In a recent study of 192 NHS staff who were abuse survivors, 85% said their abuser directly interfered with their work and 92% reported their work/career were negatively affected. Almost all suffered physical and mental health consequences. Many needed time off: on average each survivor took 13 sick days, five days’ special leave, plus late/ early departures due to abuse.
Currently, NHS England, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, and Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust do not include questions relating to domestic abuse in staff surveys. It is therefore not possible to accurately quantify the scale and impact of the issue on NHS staff nationally and locally. With a combined staff base of 22,000 people across our Trusts, 74% of whom are women, it is likely to be significant. As part of our work, we aim for NHSE and both our NHS FTs to build domestic abuse enquiry into their staff surveys, thus influencing national recognition and support around this important issue.
We aim to deliver a programme called CARE: Culture, Awareness, Response, Empowerment. This is a groundbreaking project that brings together our Trusts, IDAS (a specialist domestic abuse charity), and Sheffield Hospitals Charity to develop and embed a sustainable, preventative infrastructure to address domestic abuse among healthcare staff. CARE will improve staff well-being, reduce time off work, increase referrals for support, empower staff to remain in work, and develop a culture of zero tolerance and compassionate support.
Grounded in our NHS FT’s organisational values and aligned with national sexual safety improvement work, the project will create a system-wide model that ensures NHS and care sector employees can work in environments that are safe, trauma-informed, and equipped to prevent and respond to domestic abuse. A preventative project like CARE can deliver significant long-term savings by increasing staff retention and wellbeing and compliments the hundreds of thousands of pounds the charity invests in the mental health and wellbeing, training and education of NHS staff.
Early cancer diagnosis
The NHS aims to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 through cervical screening and uptake of the HPV vaccine. Screening can prevent up to 75% of instances of cervical cancer and is estimated to save 5,000 lives per year. Sheffield Hospitals Charity is working with Primary Care colleagues to increase uptake of cervical screening.
The Foundry PCN comprises eight GP surgeries; all but one are in the IMD decile 1 (Index of Multiple Deprivation, decile 1 is the most deprived). Cervical screening rates in this PCN are amongst the lowest in the country: 47% against an England rate of 69%. By working with Foundry PCN we will be providing targeted support to local communities in Sheffield with the lowest uptake of cervical screening.
In June 2025, we piloted a women’s health event at Firvale Community Hub. We want to test, learn and scale a range of community and highly targeted events around women’s health. The specific aim of these events is to book women for their cervical screening on the day. We will also be helping women to understand how to check their breasts, for example through clothed demonstrations.
Our metrics of success include the number of bookings and screenings attended. Importantly, the events will provide a space to open up conversations about women’s health, encouraging self-care and uptake of NHS services. Screening will be encouraged in ways that seek to overcome barriers including generational trauma, experience of female genital mutilation and cultural factors. Because every woman affected by cervical cancer should have the opportunity for an early diagnosis.
Sheffield Hospitals Charity support women’s health event at Firvale Community Hub
The event within the Page Hall area of Sheffield aimed to reduce stigma, increase awareness, offer support and encourage women to attend cervical screening appointments.
