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 😊

One of the Scottish trusts had an EqIA for their trans policy/guidence that suggested that in implementing the policy they should be aware that some people believed that sex was immutable, and that this belief was protected (or words to that effect). It was in the “religion” section of the EqIA, not the “sex” section, which pissed me off no end.

using inappropriate language

I believe during the Sandi Peggie ETit came up that there was no language Sandie Peggie could have used that would have been acceptable to DrUpton. What's the "appropriate" way of complaining about the presence of a male person who disagrees that they are male?

Didn't realise Ermine Amies was TT - on Darlington nurses preliminary hearing. Phenomenal.

@TwoLoonsAndASprout was this Essex Partnership or the London North West?! Struggling to find the original document. Thanks!

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few"

I’ll check!

Central North West London.

Most of their policies IIR are quite outdated - quite a few uses of the term “transsexual” which I think is frowned upon now.

Thanks! North west london generally seemed quite intense, so maybe it spread out from central?!

@KnottyAuty Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust has merged with Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to become Kingston and Richmond NHS FT - do you have this one already?

Hello all, I’ve been following the case for a while, certainly with professional curiosity.
I’ve looked at the list and I haven’t seen United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS trust (formerly United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust). Does it need completing? I’m happy to do it if it does. I’ve already studied both and found the contradictions similar to many of the others.

Thanks very much for the offer. We will defo take you up on that. We are currently working on 30 London trusts (completed Scotland) and I am trying to write up the findings now. Once we have done that we need to decide which region to go with next. I suggested South East or Midlands due to other interesting issues which might add to the potency for reporting. But probably we will all be having a well earned break over Easter before we get back on it again... so please do watch this space xx

Hi. Here is a very rough draft/first attempt at a London write up. Comments and egregious examples to include please. Most need examples from EqiAs. I'll leave this open until tomorrow morning: https://form.jotform.com/250916474960060

@KnottyAuty Wow just wow.

I have not contributed much but will if in my region as i know more about the area, and hopefully will have more time.

I said up thread about copy to Wes Streeting. I think you should also send to the EHRC given the letter to Fife.

Thankyou so much for your efforts.

My word @KnottyAuty Well done!! You have worked really hard on this and the summary is quite something. I have just sent a couple of comments on the jot form. I would also add that the level of obfuscation that the NHS has stooped to over single sex accommodation is quite breath-taking.

Thanks! It’s probably too wordy and too much but I can’t think of another way to lay it out. Maybe i should break it up with headings.

Also any thoughts on whether to cover staff single sex accommodation? Not tackled that at all yet.

Also any thoughts on whether to cover staff single sex accommodation? Not tackled that at all yet.

I think for now, lets try to get as much of the UK done from the patients' viewpoint. That is potentially all of us and while some wouldn't mind a mixed sex ward I suspect that a majority of us would prefer single sex.

Sorry, I haven't had time to help but hope to later.

Headings would probably help a reader but the fact is we have uncovered a huge amount of information. I wondered if you could summarise the issues for staff in a short paragraph or two along the lines of "despite the legal position for single sex changing facilities being quite clear, we found no evidence that the NHS is actually abiding by the law. Some policies [examples] seem to actively encourage the use of changing facilities on the basis of self ID without any regard to the impacts on members of the opposite sex"

I think journalists may find the lack of protection for patients presents a new angle on the wider story and will be more interested in it.

Thanks thats a great idea

should we do anything on the Datix thing? The lack of category for Sexual assault? How to prove that? Any NHS folks on here who might know?

to link to the EqIA stuff - they say no effect but how do they know?

The DATIX thing was in an FOI, so if we assume the person who replied to the FOI was in possession of all the information (which I think you have to, given it’s an FOI) that would count as proof, I think. But I think that was a Scottish trust - if so, it was probably Lothian. I will try and find it for you.

Have completed the form - it's brilliant work Knotty, thank you.

What we're uncovering is that NHS trusts seem to be saying that a male patient's self ID into womanhood (gender) overrides any other patients objection to that. And the way they're managing that conflict is firstly to obfuscate / lie / gaslight - so to try and, by sleight of hand, claim that they provide single SEX spaces which in reality may very well be mixed sex due to the ability of anyone of any sex to self ID into any space on the basis of (undefined) GENDER. (Edited to add - so it's great you point out how this breaches the Nolan principles, not to mention destroys trust in the NHS).

Obviously it works both ways but it MATTERS more in terms of men self Iding into female space due to their rates of sexual offending and larger size and strength. So it undermines safeguarding.

The clearest example of the lying and gaslighting in response to a clear conflict of rights is where the woman was raped on a 'female' ward. It shows how far they'll go. And it shows that far from a single terrible case, this crime is explicitly enabled by NHS policies.

This is particularly chilling in hospitals where women may have disabilities and be unable to move and / or immediately see if male sexed patients are present. Edited to add: it's obviously chilling in general but it's specific direct discrimination and removal of safeguarding on the basis of the pc of disability I think.

I don't know much about the Datix. However a few thoughts on how to explain how just how useless the few EqIA's that exist, actually are.

An equality impact assessment (EIA) is an evidence-based approach designed to help organisations ensure that their policies, practices, events and decision-making processes are fair and do not present barriers to participation or disadvantage any protected groups.

In cases of new policies or management decisions there may be little evidence of the potential effect on protected characteristic groups. In such cases you should make a judgement that is as reliable as possible. Consultation will strengthen these value judgements by building a consensus that can avoid obvious prejudices or assumptions. Consultation can add evidence to the assessment.

Consultation is very important and key to demonstrating that organisations are meeting the equality duties, but it also needs to be proportionate and relevant. Considering the degree and range of consultation will safeguard against ‘groupthink’ by involving a diverse range of consultees.

I wonder how many women will self exclude from NHS care now this deception has been made clear.

Do the NHS chiefs on their fat salaries care? Probably not. Hopefully Wes Streeting will care.

https://org.nhslothian.scot/foi/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/02/9606.pdf

From the FOI:

Answer:
I am advised that we do not have a specific category on DATIX for Sexual Assault or Rape.