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 😊

@KnottyAuty Just a thought maybe we should shift our research in to how many trusts have suspended deleted or put under review their trans access policies post judgement? Midlands defo a focus whatever.

I think that will be our next step - but for press coverage in the first instance I think our first step is to prove that all single sex spaces are (or were) wiped out as of March/April 2025.

For checking how the trusts respond to today's judgement we will need to put in lots of Freedom of Information requests. Because almost all the policies are not downloadable from the websites. So we can't easily check if they have been withdrawn... I was trying to work out how long a trust might reasonably need to review/update a policy - 6 months? more?

I'm up for some FOIs! Would it be useful if we ask the exact same question?

I'm thinking there needs to be a question about the definition of 'sex' and 'gender' in their policies. Plus of course whether their policies would let a self-identified male-bodied woman into the 'single sex' wards.

I feel there needs to be something to get around their obfuscation of normal English language.

This was Marion Calder(FWS)'s take: "The many bodies which are operating self-ID policies must immediately scrap them. They are now illegal. If they do not, they will see multiple tribunals very quickly.”

They can't decide whether to implement or not, and if they don't they're breaking the law. So perhaps one month?

Given that most [all?] NHS trusts have policies that are breaking the Equality Act you might expect them to prioritise a comprehensive review. Just watching a health minister on TV squirming to try and explain how the NHS will respond to the SC judgement so I am not filled with confidence. As Knotty says this will make it even more difficult to get the information. I am also up for going the FOI route.

Who was the minister (surely not Wes?) and what was it on? We need to be holding feet to the fire…

Is it worth going after the NHS Constitution? It has replaced sex with gender in its list of PCs and all Trusts in England need to adhere to it:

”The Secretary of State for Health, all NHS bodies, private and voluntary sector providers supplying NHS services, and local authorities in the exercise of their public health functions are required by law to take account of this Constitution in their decisions and actions.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-nhs-constitution-for-england

If we do manage to identify their policies, we also need to ask for the date of revision. Any policy after 16th April will tell its own story.

I mean as well as, not instead of going after the Trusts. Potentially, an update to accurately reflect the SC judgement would also give Trusts the framework for their own updated policies. Which might help them move faster.

I think the horrific Framework doc published by NHS Confederation provided the template for several Trusts in producing what they’ve got now. Let’s follow a successful model to put back the law as it is (not as Stonewall wanted it to be).

VG point.

Re timescale: Baroness Falkner, Chair of the EHRC, this morning (Thursday April 17) on the Today programme, says the EHRC will issue a “statutory code of practice” by summer. She then went on to say that for the NHS (which appears to be a special case that she singled out), she is expecting them to issue new guidance (expressed some exasperation…said they have been working with the NHS for some time), and that if they do not update their guidance, the EHRC will “pursue” them.

So unless the NHS publish their own updated guidance ahead of the EHRC’s statutory code, the earliest we could call the Trusts to account is summer.

So let’s say date of Baroness Falkner’s pronouncement plus one month?

Given that they know it’s coming, so it technically wouldn’t just be a month.

And given that so many of them have policies that lapsed/were due to be reviewed years ago.

Actually, how long was it from when the OfS fine came down on UniSussex before other unis started mothballing their similar policies? Maybe that’s a good length of time.

Oh this is interesting!
It could be staged questions… not necessarily what has been done but asking to prompt action?

In the first instance, how about asking in a FOI for correspondence confirming that the trusts have withdrawn or suspended policy for review following the 16th April ruling?

We could get organised to ask that on 16th May…

Yes, agree. We'd rather prompt action than catch them out NOT doing it, right?

Like that idea. Have to be careful if we’re going to end up sending multiple FOIs to the same place that we (as individuals) don’t get shut out due to vexatious whatchamacallit.

Absolutely - one single WhatDoTheyKnow.com account would need to send all the requests.

Agree with this latest plan. Centralise one request to all Trusts from one account.

I suppose we need to decide on our priorities. As I see it there are 2 strands:

1. Get the policies changed back to being lawful

2. Using the current policy situation to spark mass peaking via press coverage.

I’m personally erring towards 2…

Firstly because if most people remain in the dark there is less protection against the inevitable trans movement’s push back. If the public never knew the policy was changed to Stonewall law then even if it’s reversed now it might slip back.

Secondly increased public awareness will speed up policy changes than if we fight trust by trust. More likely to galvanise an edict from the top etc

If we check all the UK NHS policies and prove single sex spaces are all gone in NHS policy - then combined with the SC ruling I think we have peaking dynamite on our hands…

what do you think?

Then - after that - we start on the FOIs…

I’m inclined to agree that we need to peak the most people we can - that’s going to make backsliding much harder. Also it will embolden the average Joe/Josephine on the street to challenge things if they see them.

And should I be typing “peaked” or “piqued”?

I’ve been wondering for a while but didn't want to ask?!

I think it’s peaked - as in, hit the top of the mountain and can now see clearly.

Piqued would be irritated. Which is also a stage on the way to peaking, I think 🤣

Hi @KnottyAuty Ian away for 2 weeks and will mostly off line so wont be able to help….sorry about that

It was a more junior minister Karin Smyth IIRC

I agree. The coverage of the judgement has been huge and we can capitalise on this over the short term to get the public much more engaged and make it clear how the Equality Act has been flagrantly disregarded by the NHS. I got the impression listening to Baroness Faulkner earlier that the EHRC have got the NHS in their sights and this will no doubt influence the necessary policy makers in DHSC.