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 😊

Well that's convenient isn't it. Depressing.

Didn't Dr Upton use DATIX? So there's a field for hurt feelings but not actual sexual assault?

Oh yes indeed.

Because as we all know, men’s hurty feels is genocide, but women being actually physically attacked is just another Wednesday.

Very interesting!

it made me go off to look at the NHS Constitution
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-nhs-constitution-for-england#patients-and-the-public-your-rights-and-the-nhs-pledges-to-you

Are my eyes deceiving me? Has sex been written out of the list of protected characteristics?

@thenoisiesttermagant I agree and I also think the fact that an organisation has left does not end the influence. Most policies run for 3-5 years before review and even then updating, IME would be quite cursory.

Yes @KnottyAuty they've replaced it with gender. But they don't say they are protected characteristics even though they obviously are supposed to be

The NHS Constitution is being updated and it was out for consultation last year. As far as I can see the change of government means it has stalled. One section below is a proposed change in regards to transgender patients.

if you are admitted to hospital, you will not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex, except where appropriate. The Equality Act 2010 allows for the provision of single-sex or separate-sex services. It also allows for transgender persons with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment to be provided a different service - for example, a single room in a hospital - if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-constitution-10-year-review/nhs-constitution-10-year-review#how-to-respond

What I would really like is for all of these things that say “if that is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim” to add afterwards “for example, maintaining actual single sex spaces.”

edited to add

Because at the moment, everyone seems to be under the mistaken impression that women having actual single sex spaces is not a legitimate aim.

Some additional info re Ofsted. They were actually downgrading primary schools for a lack of teaching about gender identity. Stonewall wrote to Ofsted whining that they weren't speaking enough to little children about GI. Fortunately the letters were leaked to the Telegraph. After a furore Ofsted dumped Stonewall. There was no apology for pushing GI in schools - they've done a quiet reverse ferret in the hope that nobody will notice.
But they're fully culpable for the direction schools have taken with all this - just as NHS England, the CQC etc are for the NHS's awful safeguarding failures re this. Archive link to the Telegraph article:

archive.ph/L987K

These london trusts are proving really tricky compared to the scottish ones aren't they?

I've ended up trawling news items to get the names of staff networks and then googling those got to board minutes which I word searched and found reference to a new transgender inclusion policy... 😅I've sent in a FOI as that policy was created in 2025 and Ermine's searches came up as "no policy" but gender self ID.

Also being thwarted by the mergers which seem to have been happening - that website with the list of NHS Providers seems to be about 3-4 years out of date which makes things unecessarily difficult?!

The combination of mergers combined with lack of transparency means I've taken 3-4 hours on one trust?! I'm fairly certain it is self ID, but not totally certain. How on earth is any average person meant to find out what is going on?!

If someone could take on Homerton and Hounslow & Richmond, that would be great - Great Ormond St and Imperial are beasts, I suspect simply because kids (GOSH) and number of sites (Imperial)....

If I'm managing to track offers of help correctly would this be OK?

@ShockedandStunnedRepeatedly - Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

@withthegreatestrespect - Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust

one each?

Has anyone been doing either of these?

West London NHS Trust
Whittington Health NHS Trust

We are doing really well - only 10 out of 31 to finish off - we are whipping through these much much faster than the Scottish ones even though they seem much more difficult..

Great work vipers xx

I haven’t time just now @KnottyAuty think maybe it was someone else?

I think @FarriersGirl was one of the offers maybe?

And maybe @YellowRoom?

@KnottyAuty just confirming I'm still on South Maudsley and UCL - was out yesterday so will be back on it this afternoon.

Morning - I'll do University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust today and can also pick up Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Possibly more depending on how long they take

I'll take on both. Should have time this afternoon

Anyone else want help with their allocation? I've suspended my broader search for now, but have time today and Monday for some London ferreting.

<waves>

Sorry, didn't see your post😳I'll leave Homerton to you and I'll do Hounslow and Richmond

@KnottyAuty Are they all allocated or do you need me to do another one?

Following several years of close partnership working and shared leadership, in November 2024 Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare (HRCH) and Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust formally joined together and are now called Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust.

So I think @ThatPithySheep has covered Hounslow and Richmond as part of Kingston and Richmond. Do you have a different one (or two) that you would like me to do @KnottyAuty ?

Ooh hello! @SeaStoat
thank you sooooooo sooooo much for all your searching xxxx