NHS Policy Audit - working party -Thread #3

You'll love this one too - you've probably seen it before but the first time for me. Lots of references to other docs at the end too, going right back to the 2007 era

Trans Users Rights

Not sure if anyone else has come across this Stonewall publication on their travels around other trusts?

Sharing for others to appreciate this claim in particular

"Ensuring that your service delivery or customer service is trans inclusive will ensure that:

You will avoid any potential lawsuits or reputational damage, and fulfil legislative requirements"

Presumably by following the advice in its guides - how's that working out for Fife / Darlington / St Hellier so far?

trans-resource-6.indd

Great - I’m on it!

Thank you - we have plenty to go at. Next up is Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Thank you @FeedbackProvider that is helpful. I think it explains why we sometimes get the impression that a website has been 'cleaned up'. I sometimes use AI for a wider search and the links it provides appear to be broken or a reference removed.

This is so helpful, I have been wondering! Thank you.

You all might be familiar with this already, but LadyElaine asked me to mention that if you have pages that Google is telling you contain a reference to some text but you can't find the text on the page in the browser, the text might be coming from attributes that are applied to an image. For example, if you see references to Stonewall, but can't find it in the text, it might be coming from a Stonewall Diversity Champion accreditation badge image somewhere on the page. We've seen this on job vacancy pages. On the pages we've looked at, this badge is not just an image, but also links to the Stonewall site. You can see the text if you hover over the image.

As part of investigating that, I noticed that there is a new NHS-wide vacancies site at jobs.nhs.uk. It's still marked as BETA. There are no accreditation badges on that site for any of the jobs I've looked at and also the documents posted next to the job are different on that site compared with the ones on the trust's own (trac.jobs) site. For example, at least one trust (Morecambe) posts a document from their LGBT staff network next to every job posting on their own site, but that document is not present on the jobs.nhs.uk site for the same jobs. I wonder why the difference?

Trusts are still maintaining their own job vacancy pages and all the trusts I've looked at are using the same tech, so accreditation badges are supported on those pages. Looking at current job postings may be another way of knowing what programs a trust has signed on to.

I have submitted University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay and could take another if there are still some left.

Yes, I will look at archives if nothing comes through on the FOI - last correspondence dated 4 July - so hoping they may provide the old policies before resorting to the wayback machine

Given the huge amount of damaging press coverage recently I suspect they have wiped everything and will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the Information Commissioner.

Is it worth looking at the wayback machine or similar?

I've had a quick look at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust but they seem to be considering a reverse ferret and have wiped their website of incriminating evidence (or never had any in the first place).

@SeaStoat is doing sterling work holding them to account on the FOI front but nothing yet to get our teeth into.

I will come back to this one at the end by which point we may have the previous policy (pulled as a result of the SC ruling) to look at.

Thanks @YellowRoom would you like the ambulance trust seeing you have done most of them? North West just has the one.

'Today’s judgement by the UK Supreme Court, ruling that ‘woman’ means those biologically born female, is a surprise and backwards step for those committed to progressing diversity and inclusion.'

This is just so stupid. How is stating a fact a backward step? If the Supreme Court had ruled that it was now open season for discriminating against transactivists then that might be the case, but the judgement went out of its way to say that they were still protected.

What about diversity and inclusion for other protected groups? Silence, I expect.

I've submitted South Western Ambulance - tons of Stonewall, Rainbow Badge, Pride stuff but couldn't find any actual policies.

Maternity Policy provided as part of the evidence given to Stonewall - 'pregnant' replaced by 'expecting' and 'mother' replaced by 'birthing parent'.

The South Western Ambulance Service LGBT Network was formed in 2014. In June 2022 there has been a change to the committee and structure. Moving to a name that also includes people who identify as queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, allies; becoming the SWASFT LGBTQIA+ Network.

Handy presentation of achievements includes:
2017 Rainbow and Trans badges started
2019 New DCA with rainbow decals for Pride events within SWAST. Trans Z card added to the JRCALC app
2018/19 assessment results for all the ambulance trusts - I'm assuming Stonewall assessment but not sure

Supreme Court ruling
'Together with the LGBT+ Staff Network and Women’s Network, SWASFT would like to reassure all trans colleagues and patients that we are here for you. While we don’t currently know what the ruling may mean in terms of any national changes to policy, we will work with our trans colleagues to understand any such changes and take great care to recognise the impact this may have on you.'

Supreme Court ruling - National Ambulance LGBT+ Network response shared on Trust's website
'Today’s judgement by the UK Supreme Court, ruling that ‘woman’ means those biologically born female, is a surprise and backwards step for those committed to progressing diversity and inclusion.'
'The National Ambulance LGBT+ Network is proud of the work it has undertaken in the last ten years to help make services safer and more supportive for trans staff and patients... We have done this with the unwavering support of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and individual Ambulance Trust senior management teams...'

Please could I have a NW Trust

Thank you Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust please. Link to follow

Much of Cumbria we have done as it falls under NHS North East and Yorkshire however part of the county comes under University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay if you can give that one a go. You will get a link on the DM in a while and that form contains most of the instructions, hints and tips.

Thank you - Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Link to follow

That is really good of you -
Countess of Chester Hospital
East Cheshire NHS Trust
East Lancashire Hospitals
Bridgewater Community Health NHS Trust

New link to come over in a bit

Its all yours thank you. New link to follow shortly

I'll take one please @FarriersGirl

@FarriersGirl Good morning! I would love to have a trust allocated to me along with instructions. Don’t care which, but I am in Cumbria, if it makes a difference.