IHPN celebrated International Women's Day 2025

This International Women’s Day, IHPN’s Women Leaders Network Co-Chairs, Alex Ryan and Claire Damen, take a look back at the highlights of the last year of the Network and its plans for 2025.

International Women’s Day has now been around for over 100 years and is an important moment to celebrate women’s achievements, raise awareness of ongoing gender discrimination, and push for the need to achieve equality between the sexes.

While IHPN’s Women Leaders Network (WLN) hasn’t been around for quite as long (!), we are committed to playing our part in achieving gender equality in the leadership of independent healthcare – a sector which treats millions of both NHS and private patients every year. Here at the Network, we are therefore working to create a supportive and empowering environment for women leaders of today and the future – fostering their professional growth and making a positive impact on the broader community. This work takes a number of forms, including:

• fostering a strong network for women leaders to connect, share experiences, and collaborate on professional projects;  
• creating a platform to highlight and celebrate the achievements of women leaders to increase visibility and inspire others; 
• facilitating mentoring where experienced women leaders can guide and support emerging leaders and nurture the pipeline of future women leaders; and
• sharing best practice and research on women in leadership and other equality, diversity and inclusion issues.

While we’ve only been in existence for little over a year, we’re proud of the work the WLN has already delivered and to mark International Women’s Day, here are just some of the highlights of the last 12 months.

Networking sessions with women from across the independent health sector

Having access to a strong network of women leaders where members can get together, share experiences and build connections is something women from across the sector tell us is so important to them in their career development. We were therefore delighted to hold a number of networking sessions across the country this year – attended by over 70 women from IHPN member organisations – with some fantastic guest speakers to share their career journeys and insights along the way. This included hearing from healthcare expert Helen Buckingham who has worked in quite possibly every NHS facet of the last 30 years from PCTs, to FTs, to Monitor and more! Emphasising that in an NHS which changes so constantly, it’s building up connections and relationships that will see you through the chaos, and Helen also had some fantastic advice on networking for those of us who are more “introverts”.   We were likewise delighted to hear from Louise Robey, MD of Women in Change, who had some great insights on how career growth doesn’t always follow a conventional path and that sometimes, the unexpected steps along the way are what best prepare you for the next opportunity.

WLN Steering Group Meetings – sharing stories of women in the sector

A real highlight of the Women’s Leaders Network Steering Group – comprised of female leaders from 14 different organisations delivering a range of services from hospital, primary, diagnostics and ophthalmology and more – is the chance to hear from our members on their own career journeys in the healthcare sector. These personal testimonials bring to life a huge number of issues from the challenges of achieving a work/life balance, grappling with “imposter syndrome”, dealing with sexism and bullying and how to build a supportive and inclusive work environment. There is such a power in hearing these stories from your peers and realising the common experiences women face along the way!

New toolkit to support Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

In addition to bringing women together in the sector, we also have sought to provide some tangible support to our members to improve the equality, diversity and inclusion of their teams. Following a survey of our members, we produced a toolkit which aims to offer a practical and realistic reflection of what companies and organisations in different sectors are doing in terms of promoting EDI and what is working well (and not so well!) including in areas such as diversity at CEO level, employee resource groups, and recruitment and training. Given the range of our members, from small single sites to multinational corporate chains, the key message of the resource is there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workforce, with the toolkit aiming to prompt discussion, ideas and action for IHPN members.

Looking ahead – Forthcoming launch of mentoring programme

Research shows that mentoring is a key way to help women boost and further their careers. Not only does it provide a brilliant sounding board, and source of guidance, support and inspiration for the mentee from someone who’s “been there, done that”, it’s also a hugely rewarding role for the mentor themselves! IHPN will therefore be shortly setting up a mentoring scheme for women in the sector – connecting mentors working in a variety of roles in independent healthcare with those who are looking for some guidance and support in taking their career to the next stage. This is a hugely exciting initiative which we hope will help nurture the next generation of women leaders in the sector.

As co-chairs of IHPN’s Women Leaders Network, it’s a real privilege to play our part in helping achieve greater equality and opportunities for women working in independent healthcare. The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #AccelerateAction and we hope build on our work to date and to do just that in the coming year!

For more information on the Women’s Leaders Network, please contact [email protected]