Fears over ‘flawed’ NHS single-sex wards review carried out by ‘trans advocate’

[ChristinaXYZ]

"The NHS review into single-sex wards is being carried out by a "trans advocate" who has said that rules that allow patients to self-identify their gender will not be changed, The Telegraph can reveal.

Dr Michael Brady, the national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England, has written to campaign groups telling them that there is “no plan to reduce existing rights of trans people”. Controversial charities Stonewall and Mermaids had contributed “very helpfully” to the process, Dr Brady told the Trans NHS Staff Network in emails seen by The Telegraph.

The review came just months after Sajid Javid asked his officials to look at the policies in the wake of a Telegraph investigation which revealed that some issued by NHS trusts said that male sex offenders who self-identify as women could be placed on female-only wards....

Despite the review of this guidance being ordered amid concern for the impact on women, Dr Brady said in emails that the “commitment from the team leading on the review is supporting the maintenance/strengthening of trans rights in the update”. ...

Women and LGB groups have now warned that they were excluded from the process, which began in December.

An investigation by a coalition including Fair Play for Women, LGB Alliance, Woman’s Place UK, Sex not Gender Nurse and Midwives and Sex Matters has found that doctors and nurses have complained it was not widely publicised within the NHS and not opened to public consultation.

They have written to the Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne will table an amendment in the Lords on Wednesday calling for ministers to withdraw the 2019 guidance and abandon the review as it is “flawed through failing to offer independence”.

“Our demands to the Health Secretary are simple and entirely reasonable: that the review into single-sex accommodation is undertaken transparently, impartially, and in collaboration with representatives of people most affected by this policy,” said Rhona Hotchkiss, a retired nurse and volunteer at LGB Alliance ..."

To read the full article

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/15/fears-flawed-nhs-single-sex-wards-review-carried-trans-advocate

I don't understand how Dr Michael Brady isn't facing a review of his adherence to Nolan Principles. He may not wish to consider the perspective of women but he is bound to by Nolan and the principles of openness, selflessness and integrity.

Selflessness : Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

Integrity : Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

Objectivity : Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

Accountability : Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

Openness : Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

Honesty : Holders of public office should be truthful.

Leadership : Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Well put. He is failing at the first of those hurdles and then carries on.

And just to add. I know there is a lot going on at the moment but this is so important - grateful as ever to Baroness Nicolson for trying to ensure that the review is fair.

@ChristinaXYZ

And just to add. I know there is a lot going on at the moment but this is so important - grateful as ever to Baroness Nicolson for trying to ensure that the review is fair.

Agree with this. Thank you to all who are working on this, and to you @ChristinaXYZ for highlighting here.

Thanks @Leafstamp . I do think it is dropping off people's radar. People saw Sajid Javid's announcing of the review a while back and thought it was in hand.

His behaviour in writing to so many trans lobby groups telling them in advance of the completion of the enquiry that nothing's going to change, shows he's failing dismally on integrity:
Integrity : Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships

Failure to kick him out for this suggests significant levels of corruption and bias within this allegedly neutral enquiry .

This is unacceptable. What can we do?

@DomesticatedZombie

This is unacceptable. What can we do?

Presumably (yet another) letter to our MPs? Unbelievable that people like him have no shame in boasting about their lack of neutrality.

The Daily Mail has a version of the story.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10618541/Womens-groups-claim-EXCLUDED-flawed-NHS-review-single-sex-hospital-wards.html

It's unfortunate that none of the coverage is currently addressing the issue of Nolan Principles. I would expect this to be scrutinised as a matter of urgency because this is a reputational risk in addition to other matters.

We would be stunned if there were a racist practice in NHS, 'reviewed' by someone who announced in advance he approved of it and had determined nothing would change, and that he had appointed an organisation dedicated to perpetuating racism, to make a report, while excluding all input from anti-racists or their representatives.

Who upholds Nolan Principles, Embarrassing? To whom would we address concerns when they're being broken?

@DomesticatedZombie

Who upholds Nolan Principles, Embarrassing? To whom would we address concerns when they're being broken?

The broad answer is that your governance structure does. E.g., it's the Trust Board ordinarily for clinicians.

However, in this case, I'm split between Brady's role as an healthcare practitioner and National Adviser for LGBT health at NHS England and feel it's the latter that is in question here. I must confess that I don't know where the governance for that lies. I wonder if the Baroness would know?

The accounts also claim that he is leading the review but in the Telegraph version:

Two government ministers have noted that Dr Brady is one of those leading the review, but on Tuesday night the NHS insisted it was being led by Ruth May, England’s Chief Nursing Officer.
…
Sources insisted that Dr Brady did not lead or chair any of the meetings around the consultation.

This muddies the waters considerably. If he's acting as a stakeholder then it matters who he is a stakeholder for and what his remit is. If he is a National Advisor and has a key role in the review, then that is a different matter. This needs clarity.

Maybe some carefully crafted questions to our MPs asking them to ask Sajid Javid (Sec of State for Health)? My MP gets answers from ministers on occasions:
A few thoughts:

Re the NHS Enquiry into single sex wards. In the light of the information that Dr Michael Brady, national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England who is part of the review, has preempted the outcome having written to trans activist campaign groups telling them that there is “no plan to reduce existing rights of trans people”. As this review came about following revelations that some NHS trusts had policies to ensure that male born sex offenders would be placed on women's hospital wards if they self identified as women, preempting the outcome like this puts women and girls at significant risk of harm.

Please would you ask Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Health) the following:

1. What is Dr Michael Brady's role in this enquiry?
2. What authority does he have to pre empt the result of the enquiry?
3. His behaviour in advising political lobby groups in this way appears to be biased and in breach of the Nolan principles of public life, in particular Selflessness and Integrity. Are members of the NHS enquiry bound by the Nolan principles?
4. In the light of these revelations can the Sec of State confirm what steps he will take to ensure that the enquiry is "independent" as this now seems unlikely?

Or something similar.

supporting the maintenance/strengthening of trans rights

To stomp all over the rights, equalities, access and consent of females? Is this now a definite definition of what 'trans rights' actually are?

Because no. Those are not rights any group should ever be entitled to in any sane, civilised country that is not a male supremacist dystopian nightmare.

@MrsOvertonsWindow

Maybe some carefully crafted questions to our MPs asking them to ask Sajid Javid (Sec of State for Health)? My MP gets answers from ministers on occasions: A few thoughts:

Re the NHS Enquiry into single sex wards. In the light of the information that Dr Michael Brady, national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England who is part of the review, has preempted the outcome having written to trans activist campaign groups telling them that there is “no plan to reduce existing rights of trans people”. As this review came about following revelations that some NHS trusts had policies to ensure that male born sex offenders would be placed on women's hospital wards if they self identified as women, preempting the outcome like this puts women and girls at significant risk of harm.

Please would you ask Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Health) the following:

1. What is Dr Michael Brady's role in this enquiry?
2. What authority does he have to pre empt the result of the enquiry?
3. His behaviour in advising political lobby groups in this way appears to be biased and in breach of the Nolan principles of public life, in particular Selflessness and Integrity. Are members of the NHS enquiry bound by the Nolan principles?
4. In the light of these revelations can the Sec of State confirm what steps he will take to ensure that the enquiry is "independent" as this now seems unlikely?

Or something similar.

Thanks, whilst my MP is a wet lettuce I will send a version of this, he has daughters.

@MrsOvertonsWindow

Maybe some carefully crafted questions to our MPs asking them to ask Sajid Javid (Sec of State for Health)? My MP gets answers from ministers on occasions: A few thoughts:

Re the NHS Enquiry into single sex wards. In the light of the information that Dr Michael Brady, national adviser for LGBT health at NHS England who is part of the review, has preempted the outcome having written to trans activist campaign groups telling them that there is “no plan to reduce existing rights of trans people”. As this review came about following revelations that some NHS trusts had policies to ensure that male born sex offenders would be placed on women's hospital wards if they self identified as women, preempting the outcome like this puts women and girls at significant risk of harm.

Please would you ask Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Health) the following:

1. What is Dr Michael Brady's role in this enquiry?
2. What authority does he have to pre empt the result of the enquiry?
3. His behaviour in advising political lobby groups in this way appears to be biased and in breach of the Nolan principles of public life, in particular Selflessness and Integrity. Are members of the NHS enquiry bound by the Nolan principles?
4. In the light of these revelations can the Sec of State confirm what steps he will take to ensure that the enquiry is "independent" as this now seems unlikely?

Or something similar.

Ver useful @MrsOvertonsWindow Thanks

Please would you ask Sajid Javid (Secretary of State for Health) the following:

That is a very helpful set of questions, thank you.

"fears" says it all really.

Thank you for this, OP.

What a shit show.

It's a shit show indeed. There are so many vile things happening but I really never thought women would have to protest because NHS trusts actually wrote policies ensuring that male rapists and paedophiles could be placed on hospital wards alongside women and girls.
If I was Sajid Javid I'd be instructing the police to take a deep dive into the hard drives of every single adult who contributed to / sanctioned those policies.

I can't read the article in the op, but isn't Rhona Hodgkiss, quoted in the article, the prison governor who said it is always an issue to have trans prisoners in with women prisoners?

@butnobodytoldme

We would be stunned if there were a racist practice in NHS, 'reviewed' by someone who announced in advance he approved of it and had determined nothing would change, and that he had appointed an organisation dedicated to perpetuating racism, to make a report, while excluding all input from anti-racists or their representatives.

And conducted by a white person

Rhona Hodgkiss, quoted in the article, the prison governor who said it is always an issue to have trans prisoners in with women prisoners?

Yes, she is.

Thanks Mrs Overton, that's really helpful.