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 😊

Except all the policies are self-ID by default so a GRC isn’t required for much at the moment. That argument is one for the future - the public haven’t yet clocked that self ID has eliminated the single sex spaces they expect…

Yes - I suppose what I meant was not so much that it isn’t legally permitted to check, (I’m sure it is especially in a healthcare context) just that de facto the lobby has made such a fuss / adopted stonewall law to such an extent that everyone will have been “trained” that it’s not ok to ask for GRC or even ask any questions at all…

A few of you lively volunteers have asked about the English Trusts so I have set up a form for those. Hopefully easier to use than the Scottish one. DM me if you want the link.

The list of trusts are here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-provider-directory/

I'll post the list of trusts from time to time as they get entered into the form as it was tricky allocating and keeping track - once we get further along I can post a list of trusts left to do...

Thanks

I've made a start on the following and will aim to complete and submit this week:

The Royal Wolverhampton
Essex Partnership
Surrey and Borders
Mersey Care
Velindre (Wales)
Hywel Dda (Wales)
St Helens and Knowsley
Wrighton, Wigan and Leigh
Royal Cornwall
Leicestershire partnership
North Staffordshire
Rotherham, Doncaster and Humber
Blood and Transplant Service
Birmingham and Solihull
Devon Partnership
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay
East Lancashire Hospitals
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital
Sherwood Forest Hospitals
Sheffield HSC
South West Yorkshire
University Hospitals Leicester
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals
The Walton Centre
Royal Devon University Hospitals
University Hospitals North Midlands
Sussex Partnership
East Kent Hospitals University
East London Royal Cornwall Hospitals

I think the blood and transplant service will be interesting because there are huge health implications around the sex of blood donors in terms of who can receive that blood.

Wow! Thanks! You're keen!

@KnottyAuty I have completed the new form for my home trust Sherwood Forest which is much more streamlined and focused so easier to do. Just one bit I found slightly confusing where it says Name of policy in the EqIA.

Just a thought as the enthused team rush off to do this. Is it worth approaching this task by categorising the type of trust. Acute trust staff are more likely to be impacted by issues around changing facilities. Mental health trusts often called partnership trusts are more community based and quite a lot of staff even if clinical, don't wear uniforms. The issues for those maybe be a bit different.

i can help on the England trusts i work in one of the largest midlands trusts

Hi @umbel I have already done Sherwood Forest so one to tick off your list.

Ooh thanks! I'll check that label - I have to confess after moving it around, all the boxes started looking the same. So do let me know if there are other booboos to sort

Just had a look - I was asking for the name of the policy that is being impact assessed.

What came up for the scottish trusts was that some people found EqIAs which were related to DEI topics but not relevant to our search... There also seemed to be another name for it in some areas: RIA

I've tweaked the wording.

And will also add in a bit about what to use as search terms: transgender, trans, single sex, gender reassignment, changing rooms, impact assessment

Any other terms to add?

How is it looking so far?
You've been so busy - very impressive!

No that sounds fine. Thanks for clarifying

I've just been complimented on the thoroughness of our first study on the scottish trusts and it looks like we should get some press coverage... so anyone up for chipping away at the English ones now?!

Completed:

The Royal Wolverhampton
Essex Partnership
Surrey and Borders
Mersey Care
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (St Helens and Knowsley)
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh
Royal Cornwall
Leicestershire Partnership

So many have almost identical wording.

Woohoo! We’re amazing, go us! Also especially, go @KnottyAuty!!

"So many have almost identical wording."

It seems that the same TRA has been writing them for trusts. This link was on another thread but is relevant here https://x.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1904094734680817776?s=46

This chap is Jenny Harvey who is part of the Unison trans network.

I wonder if anyone on here works at an NHS trust in a role that would give them a reason to go and look at the documents underlying the websites, to see if the metaproperties give any clue as to authors? Only if it creates no personal risk, obviously.

The ones I saw happily credited trans groups as contributors! No detective work required.

Scottish Trans was credited in almost all the Scottish Trusts - and when I checked their accounts the vast amount of their income (like £494k out of £580k) came from the Scottish Government. At a time when the NHS is facing huge cuts, this isn’t going to play well…

But what I meant was that if the wording of all these policies is so similar, is there actually a single traceable author? I've seen the suggestion that it may be Jenny Harvey.

Oh gosh … can that be established from metadata? Do we have any IT experts amongst us?!

@umbel thanks so much for your efforts!
I can see the Jotform entries ticking up - well done!

What are the one or two stand out phrases we should look for in the trusts we research please?

Metadata isn’t Always that difficult to find - just check “Properties” - “author” …

Altho maybe not on a PDF…

Thanks @umbel
You are rattling through your list - amazing work!

If anyone fancies tackling other ones from the list, we could tackle regional areas in turn if that is more digestible?

Greater London List:

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust
Barts Health NHS Trust
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children NHS Foundation Trust
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust)
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust
North East London NHS Foundation Trust
North London NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust)
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
West London NHS Trust
Whittington Health NHS Trust

Anyone fancy picking off one or two of these?
I suggest we go slow and steady as the Scottish study was a bit intense..