Shrewsbury College
Action plan 2026 to 2027
Contents
1. Introduction
What is an action plan?
Employers with 250 or more employees can produce and publish a voluntary action plan outlining how they intend to address their gender pay gap and support employees experiencing menopause. Subject to legislation, these will become mandatory from spring 2027.
To create their action plan, employers review a list of evidence-informed actions recommended by the government. They identify any they already routinely do (‘embedded actions’), and choose some new actions to work on for the first time or build on something they are already doing (‘planned actions’). They must choose at least 2 planned actions:
- one must address an organisation’s gender pay gap
- one must support employees experiencing menopause
You can see the full list of actions (opens in a new window) and guidance for employers on creating an action plan (opens in a new window).
For more detail on the process, see the gender pay gap and action plan guidance (opens in a new window).
Shrewsbury College submitted the following supporting narrative with their action plan:
This action plan has been developed in response to the college's Gender Pay Gap report at 31 March 2026.
The college's workforce is 61% female. Analysis of the data shows that the majority of women are employed in part-time lower-paid roles. When the data is broken down into role types, the median hourly rate for male and female teachers is the same, the median hourly rate for female support staff is the same as for male support staff and there is a 2.6% pay gap for women in management roles, including the Senior Leadership Team. The college would like to encourage more women to apply for full-time and more senior roles by monitoring recruitment, development and exit interview data as described in our action plan.
The highest proportion of female staff is in the 40+ age range. The college already has a Menopause Policy in place and a range of supportive measures to assist female employees where needed. By monitoring the absence data, use of existing workplace adjustments and flexible working arrangements, we can identify areas for improvement and ensure all employees are aware of the support in place.
Read Shrewsbury College’s equality policies or strategy (opens their website in a new window)
2. Planned actions
Shrewsbury College has committed to working on these actions in the 2026 to 2027 reporting year:
Encourage applications from a range of candidates
Actively seeking applications from under-represented groups can ensure a broader range of applicants for all roles.
Shrewsbury College said:
There are significantly more women than men in the lowest two pay quarters. Monitoring applicant data at key stages of the recruitment process will help us to further understand the reasons for this.
We will track this action by:
Monitoring the breakdown of all applicants and successful candidates by gender and other characteristics.
Monitoring workforce data to see where more representation is needed.
Encourage employee development through actionable steps
Giving all employees clear and actionable advice on how to develop may benefit organisations with low rates of progression and retention for women.
Shrewsbury College said:
The number of women in management roles has decreased from 19 to 17 in the last 12 months. By encouraging employees to develop their skills with a view to promotion opportunities we would hope to encourage more women to apply for management roles.
We track progress by reviewing progression and succession processes, consulting staff on development goals and establishing what barriers (if any) they face, providing mentoring and development opportunities and monitoring staff survey responses. The exit interview process has been updated to establish if lack of opportunities are a factor in employees leaving.
Review policies and procedures to meet the needs of employees experiencing menopause
Ensure your organisation’s policies align with the needs of employees experiencing menopause by reviewing your policies and procedures.
Shrewsbury College said:
Almost 80% of women employed by the college are in the 40+ age group. This group are more likely to experience menopause, which may affect their employment.
We promote the Menopause Policy to all staff, review adjustments available to staff experiencing menopause symptoms to ensure they meet their needs, analyse absence and retention rates across all age groups and genders. We will also review and analyse the number of employees who are using flexible working arrangements or reasonable adjustments and invite menopause specialists to our annual Wellbeing Day. We also promote our Wellbeing at Work plan to all employees.
3. Embedded actions
Shrewsbury College has indicated that the following actions are already an established part of their working practice.
Advertise flexible working arrangements in job adverts
Flexible working policies can aid work-life balance, especially for people with caring roles. Advertising flexibility can attract a wider, more diverse group of applicants.
Shrewsbury College said:
20% of the women working at the college are in full-time roles. By promoting our family-friendly policies and flexible working arrangements we would hope to encourage more women to apply for full-time roles.
We record how many of our existing staff use our family-friendly policies. We will also begin to ask new staff or applicants to find out if knowing about these policies influenced their decision to apply.
4. About Shrewsbury College
- Registered address
- London Road, Shrewsbury, SY2 6PR
- Sector
- Education, Public sector