NHS Policy Audit - working party

[KnottyAuty]

Following on from Thread #23 of the Peggie v NHS Employment Tribunal. Anyone who wants to help with survey/audit of paperwork against the Equality Act protected characteristics please join here 😊

Cross posted on the other thread**
I have just done a very quick trawl of my local NHS trust EDI policy. The main policy does not look too bad however beneath it lies a separate policy for trangender and non binary staff. This includes gems such as a specific personal transitioning plan for any member of staff who goes to their manager saying this is what they want. And beneath this special policy is a very lengthy set of guidance giving permissions to access single sex spaces etc. Most worryingly it seems to indicate that patients would not be informed of clinicians actual sex if they asked and their refusal to be treated could be deemed abuse of staff. EQuIA template also worse than useless as it conflates sex with gender.
There is general EDI guidance beneath the main policy but the trans one looks to be the only protected characteristic given its own special policy and guidelines. Feeling slightly queasy as this is where I would be treated 😨

Happy to help here

Bloody hell FarriersGirl, that’s dreadful and frightening.

Well done for trawling far enough to find all that out.

I'd recommend that, if you research your own trust, you research at least two others and present all your findings together. This is to keep your location secret.

Our trust has mysteriously removed ours from the intranet , the links don't work anymore. Wonder why ?

Gosh we better be quick with the downloads if they are starting to take them down

Ok Let's go with scotland since they are the most under pressure already and it is a much smaller area?

https://www.scot.nhs.uk/organisations/

I'm happy to take - Shetland, Tayside and the Western Isles.

happy to help here

it may be worth using the search boxes on one of the archive services, especially if you have the links.
I'm seeing archived stuff on https://wayback.archive.org/ and archive.today

Who wants to take any of these ones:

Group 1:
NHS Ayrshire & Arran
NHS Borders
NHS Dumfries & Galloway

Group 2:
NHS Fife
NHS Forth Valley
NHS Grampian

Group 3:
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
NHS Highland

Group 4:
NHS Lanarkshire
NHS Lothian
NHS Orkney

I've done the last 3: Shetland, Tayside and the Western Isles. Interesting already to see the range of info sharing - no sign of an EqIA at all yet

Group three, please.

Here's Knotty's brief from tribunal thread #23:

I’ve got a list of all the NHS Trusts.

We take a few each and download their DEI policy and search for the EqIAs (unlikely to exist)

We get the DEI email address for each trust

I’ll do a one page proforma with a few basic checks (eg are all 9 protected characteristics listed (spoiler - in the first 3 I checked none got this right), are the definitions correct? Do they meet EHRC guidelines? Etc). Nothing too onerous so should be quick to fill out the audit form for each trust.

We aim to get all the reviews done for end of June. Then set up a timed email to return their policy with comments copied to the EHRC all to go out in a burst about 3-5 days before the Peggie trial. No threats or anything horrible but just pointing out the unlawful areas and a reminder that someone who sanctions/publishes an unlawful policy could be held personally accountable as an ET Respondent… just the facts really. Then it’s up to them to decide how committed they are when they’ve got skin in the game

We may be able to FOI docs that aren't on websites.

Hi
I'll take Group 4
Thanks @KnottyAuty

A quick reminder that archive.today and The Internet Archive are great ways to stop documents and web pages from being memory-holed or silently rewritten.

Which search terms are you all using? NHS Lothian policy website is coming up with nothing for trans for EDI or DEI or equality

Just wanted to thank you for doing this knotty & team. I'm sitting this one out due to cowardice needing to keep my job.

I found this FOA for Powys Teaching Health Board (Wales) and it might be helpful so I'll add it to this thread: https://pthb.nhs.wales/use-of-site/freedom-of-information/disclosure-log/foi-disclosure-log-2023/august/foi-23r286-single-sex-wards-and-policies/

It is dated 12th Sept '23, so could be out of date by now.

ETA - https://pthb.nhs.wales/about-us/key-documents/equality-and-welsh-language/equality/strategic-equality-plan-2024-2028/

I'll take group 1

Thanks peeps!
Just group 2 left to find a volunteer then :)

Just download the policies for now and I will sort out the audit questions etc tonight and put them on to an online survey.

The websites vary massively but all 3 I looked at had a policy with Equality in the name. Others also had violence against women or gender based violence and transgender policies separately. One site had intimate care policy so I copied that. Just copy anything you think is relevant - I set up a folder for each trust and saved them all in one place

One didn't have any separate policies but had everything on the website main pages so I copied and pasted into a word doc with a copy of the URL.

I haven't had a chance to look properly to see whether I have scooped up the right things yet...

No sign of any EqIAs at all on any subject.

I'll take group 2 Knotty. Also worth us all bearing in mind that the devil in the detail may be in trust guidelines that expand on the policy and describe implementation.

From a quick look at Group 4, it is very hard to find their EDI policies on their websites. Going via google to search rather than their own site search engines is a bit easier. Most of the seem to list the PCs correctly, but then insist on conflating sex and gender reassignment under 'gender'. None of the three seem to collect any data on how many individuals have the PC of gender reassignment, or if they do then they don't publish it.

There is an NHS Highland EqIA on trans inclusion which most of them seem to reference. It says there will be no negative impact of trans inclusion on the PC of sex. It does note the Forstader case and says a belief that sex is immutable must be respected, but doesn't say how they will ensure this happens. It also doesn't even consider the impact of trans inclusion on women on certain relision faiths

Thanks everyone!

here copied over from the other thread is the list of questions I was thinking we could fill in. Already I’m thinking we might need to adjust the list based on what you’re finding… comments/suggestions please?

Contact Details:
Name of Trust
Name of Chief executive:
Postal Address:
CEO Contact Email Address:
Document Download:
Website address for DEI policy:
Website address for EqIA for Changing Room Policy:
Website address for other relevant policy:
Date web pages accessed/documents downloaded:
Basic Details of Relevant Policy
Name of Changing Room Policy Document or EqIA (or other relevant doc if specific policy or risk assessment not found):
Author:
Date of publication:
Date of next review:
Total number of pages:
Policy Audit against Equality Act 2010
Reference to protected characteristics: tick box for all 9 with terms that specifically match the EA terms
Characteristics listed which are similar to the EA terms but not the same.
Characteristics listed which bear no resemblance to the EA terms
Page number within document when characteristics first listed/defined:
Single sex changing room policy directly addressed/mentioned: y/n, cut and paste wording and give page number
Policy on trans gender changing room use - y/n, cut and paste wording and give page number

Greater Manchester NHS training event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trans-inclusivity-in-the-workplace-all-staff-tickets-940531975457?aff=oddtdtcreator

It’s not estimated at up to 1%
Scotland’s figures are clear - it’s 0.44% of the population with about half of those people non binary.
which means that the majority of the “trans” group arent catered for at all much
oh the irony

I think this is a good start. I would add in something to prompt a search for guidelines or strategy documents that implement the policy. My home trusts policy pretty much follows the EA it is the guidelines where it all goes batshit. Also can we put in something about a hierarchy of PCs. I have scanned the policies of my 3 Scottish trusts and one of them has a lot of supporting info for gender reassignment and nothing for any of the others.

Too late to grab any of the Scottish ones but definitely up for doing this.