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 😊

no problem for me either, sensible to be concerned, & 2nd pairs of eyes helpful

Lisa Mckenzie of Murray Blackburn Mckenzie has been tweeting today about Scottish NHS trusts' EDI policies. Worth DMing her on there?

Right lovely peeps - the DMs are back up and running at just the right moment. The volunteers who have offered have a message and survey link. Impressively it seems to be possible to upload documents which will be linked to your data entry.

Maybe have a go at doing one entry and then let me know if you think I need to tweak the form before we go on?

Got one journalist who is interested in the results but let's agree together where we think this info might be best placed for max impact? (if it is any good LOL)

@ThatPithySheep, you weren’t kidding. It’s a mess. I have had to walk away from my computer in disgust, leaving about 20 tabs open with loads of…nothing very helpful. I will keep sifting.

Surely patients can refuse to be treated without a chaperone

@KnottyAuty if you could put up groups of non-Scottish ones too I'll happily take a few. I will put the answers in a spreadsheet using the headings you suggest so hopefully cutting and pasting will be relatively straightforward.

I'm working abroad this week so have absolutely bugger all to do in the evenings.... apart from drink very cheap gin and rage about stuff!

Well that is defo a quote for the "other comments" box. Not being able to extract policies is a finding in itself?!

Ooh excellent! I'll copy the survey over and start and english one and send you a link

I don't have the headspace to organise who is doing what but if you choose a series/sequence in alphabetical order selection and post them here - then we can track who has done what?

here is the list of english trusts @SqueakyDinosaur (and check your PMs)

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-provider-directory/

Question: are other people just googling “[trust name] changing room policy” and finding things? Obvs, given my comment above, I am not just doing that, but I’m curious to know how explicit other trusts are about this.

Someone was looking for info for NHS Lothian ? @ThatPithySheep

org.nhslothian.scot/foi/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/8616.pdf

I've had mixed results. One trust has everything on webpages so I cut and pasted it into word and saved it. Another has DEI policies but not much else that I have found yet. The third had buckets of policies on all sorts of things. Every policy so far is past its sell by date and is due for a review....

Edited to say that I followed the main menus through the site into staff areas. But and used their on site search. But good idea I will also try a direct google...

I’m not at my computer with all my millions of tabs open, but I believe there was also a second FOI request that also came up in Google searches, with (I think) basically the same text.

You could try to use copilot or google Gemini ai to search the websites too?

Love your username.

Thanks!
Love this thread

Good news on the DMs! I have been googling the trust names and "transgender policy" which in one case was extremely revealing of a very special policy! I'm out this morning but will hopefully get a chance to do an entry or two this pm.

I don't think this is about chaperones. Patients have a right to request same sex intimate care and the trusts transgender policy indicate that this would not necessarily be respected.

I recommend both as there are sometimes reliability issues with one or the other. Plus screenshots.

Count me in for some searching. South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Transgender and Intersex Policy makes for interesting reading!

Completed the audit form for one of my trusts this afternoon. Well done Knotty! I found it easy to complete and I am not familiar with jotform. Just one query from the form, the box for date of publication [of the policy] may need a bit of clarity. Mine had a date first published, then several dates when it had been reviewed and a current issue date. I have gone with the current issue date.

Hi! Late to the party as I’ve been busy with work lately but if you’re still looking for eyes I‘d be delighted to help. I’ll DM you, @KnottyAuty

Thank you!

Yes the current date is best - I shall try to add a note

The form seems to work brilliantly with the uploaded document dropped into a spreadsheet on the back end, so super easy to open and cross refer!

Some interim feedback while working on my first (Ayr & Arran):

A save current work button? if possible - to let me interleave other tasks & not risk losing work done. At the mo I'm running a separate doc with autosave on.

Policy Review section could do with:
Initial publication date
Review Period if stated
number of reviews performed

( I found: Policy Doc published 2016, one review 2018, review period 3 yearly, but no date set for next review. Which I'd describe briefly as 'one review since creation, no update process apparent'.

(Review Update details possibly in committee proceedings referred to, but are not apparent in doc.)

Save button added - I am learning new things!
Not sure what happens when you press it tho - can you do a trial and check you can get back in?!

Gosh that sounds odd - I wonder if there is a duplicate/more recent document which supersedes this one?

Otherwise I have just updated the note by the question to say "current" date rather than worry too much about the back history. Let's just go with simple snapshot of now