NHS trusts face Stonewall scrutiny on LGBT inclusion

[flyingbuttress43]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/30/stonewall-judge-nhs-lgbt-inclusion/

"40 NHS trusts may be assessed by Stonewall on their LGBT inclusion in a £220,000 taxpayer-funded project, the Sunday Telegraph has learned".

"The trusts can sign up to be benchmarked after NHS England awarded the contract, titled NHS Rainbow Badges to 5 LGBT groups. Trusts will be given bronze, silver or gold awards depending on their "inclusive cultures" and "trans status monitoring" with assessors hired on a higher starting salary than nurses. A leading role will be played by Stonewall......." etc.etc. blah blah.

A Stonewall spokesperson is quoted: "We're proud to support the NHS Rainbow Badges programme to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people have access to accessible and inclusive health services, and are free to be themselves."

So does "free to be themselves" indicate we can still expect be-penised ladies in female wards even though hospitals are to be given new guidance by the equalities regulator on preserving single sex wards?

All to be paid for by us mugs, aka tax payers.

So the discredited Stonewall still has its nose in the trough despite many high-profile organisations and government departments withdrawing from its diversity scheme.

I am going to have to write to my MP again. For the 3rd time in as many weeks. I am just doing my tax returns, so I am even more outraged than usual about the waste of my taxes, deducted at source by my employers, the NHS, for 40 years.

I'm fuming. My trust used to do a whole week induction for new starters to the trust, whatever their role. When DD started as an HCA fresh out of school two years ago she really enjoyed it and took it very seriously. There was clinical stuff like resuscitation, manual handling, dementia, sepsis (she was awe struck by the lovely sepsis nurse) and trust stuff like information governance, getting your IT requirements sorted, payroll, fire. There's a lot! She also enjoyed meeting new starters in their various roles.

Now, post Covid , it is all either online or "within the department". We have a new starter today, someone very experienced. But my manager has set aside the next two days to go through stuff with her and she can't start work until a lot of things have been covered off. We also have an incredibly busy day today with several difficult procedures and now we are effectively one member of staff down.
I'll be on my knees by this evening.
We also have recruited 15 new staff as the equivalent of HCA in the department (we're not a ward so the work is different) who are all being inducted as we go along. The ones that have come to my area have included a new school leaver and a top pastry chef who has decided to come to the NHS for a change. So much work supervising and training as we go along.
Let's hope someone remembers to go through the rainbow stuff with them though....
Doing this induction on the wards will be so hard for the staff, they are already so short staffed, they need support and help not extra work like this.
This is how trusts are cutting back and saving money.

@endofagain

I am going to have to write to my MP again. For the 3rd time in as many weeks. I am just doing my tax returns, so I am even more outraged than usual about the waste of my taxes, deducted at source by my employers, the NHS, for 40 years.

Quite!

Keep writing!

So angry , thought things were improving but it appears not. We seem to be ignored, therefore are we being conned? Are there one or two political allies who are being ignored by Civil Servants and public services. Do they believe that we'll just have to live with this because that's where we're headed. Is anyone going to look at where our money is spent - isn't there an organisation called The Taxpayers Alliance?

I think I'm going to explode. Public opinion means zilch and we are living in Orwellian times. Puff, grunt, grinds teeth, thumps table.

I had been calming down of late because of lots of coverage but I now see none of that matters.

LGB & T for sure need healthcare looked at but SW ffs

I love Stonewall's use of language
A Stonewall spokesperson is quoted: "We're proud to support the NHS Rainbow Badges programme

Support, you are being paid to do this from taxpayers!

Keerching!

Email sent. Lets see if MP replies. I had to redraft it several times as it was looking a bit like a howler...

I rather hope one of their rainbow assessors with a clipboard comes my way (though I doubt my trust is one of the participating trusts so I will be disappointed). But if I do meet one I shall say I have listened to the Nolan podcasts and concluded that Stonewall is a bullying lobbying group who have overreached their remit and spread false information. So No Thankyou. I won't be participating.

Clipboard will be inserted?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4390721-Baroness-Nicholson-letter-RE-Stonewalls-influence-in-the-NHS

Please sign Baroness Nicholson's letter asking for an urgent review of Stonewall's suitability and independence (hollow laugh).

@Artichokeleaves

Hang on a minute, this is a highly contentious controversial group where the issues of this being a political lobby who openly

• misrepresent the law
• ignore, teach and reward subordination of the other 8 protected characteristics in the Equality Act
• are biased against and intentionally mislead against the equality, rights and access of women and reward acting against women's equal best interests or hearing their concerns
• have questionable attitudes towards safeguarding
• have obviously highly contentious attitudes towards LGB people which many LGB people perceive as actively homophobic

And they are going to scrutinise and judge on how well the NHS as an impartial group with a duty of equality and public service to all are serving their partisan, exclusionary and highly political agenda?

Who the actual fuck signed off on this?! Is the government mad?

Quite. Can’t someone put in a FOI request?

This is taxpayers money.

“Department of Health pulls out of Stonewall scheme amid single-sex wards row”

From the telegraph. Oops darn...