NHS Policy Audit - working party - thread #2

[KnottyAuty]

This is a thread about “keeping the receipts” on NHS Policies prior to the Supreme Court ruling on 16th April 2025.

Our working theory is that there were no single sex spaces for NHS Staff or Patients in the entire country before that date, having all been removed by stealth. We are aiming to prove this by auditing websites and policies for all the UK trusts and using the results to raise public awareness. As well as recording what has happened historically, the information will form a baseline so we can check which Trusts comply or defy the judgement in due course.

We are working around the country region by region. If you fancy getting involved in a bit of grassroots feminism then please do join in to help!? Each trust takes about an hour to research and you can upload online without giving any personal details away. Comment below and we can give you the link to an online survey - it changes for each region.

Thanks soooo much to all the vipers who have helped so far and @ Twoloons for doing a great job with the thread wrangling!

Here are the press articles we’ve managed to generate so far:

Scotland:
25th March: The Telegraph
https://archive.is/dTUhY
26th March: Scottish Daily Express
https://archive.is/kaLCB
26th March: The Telegraph
https://archive.is/iSD9m

London:
21st April: The Telegraph
https://archive.is/awGuz
23rd April: The Telegraph (in conjunction with another thread by NHS mumsnetters)
https://archive.is/1DO8d

Original thread #1 here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5291237-nhs-policy-audit-working-party?page=1

@Harassedevictee Thank you, that’s it! I’ve now had a look and uploaded it to the jotform. It uses ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably, but no mention of gender identity or trans people. If you could find either of these, I think that might make the story clearer:

• “Delivering same-sex accommodation – the story so far” published in Dec 2009.
• Any of the versions of the Mixed Sex Accommodation statistical return guidance and FAQs, dating back to the start of the collection in January 2004 (as referenced in the CNO bulletin for that month) - though ideally the ones around 2008.

@Harassedevictee Thank you for the Hansard link, very interesting that Baroness Nicholson saw some evidence in 2008 about a change from single sex to single gender. That’s the date that the evidence I’ve gathered so far is also pointing to.

@KnottyAuty I don’t want to FOI as it could have repercussions at work, but I’m very happy to do the background work to identify the specific questions that need to be answered.

@RedToothBrush You commented on another thread that this is why sex must be recorded now. What I’ve discovered is that even if sex was recorded correctly, the Trust could still claim no breaches of the mixed sex accommodation guidance. Because self ID is a valid exemption for that data return. So the data would say ‘no problem’. And from what I’ve learned on other threads, even an incident wouldn’t be recorded in a way which showed up, because Datix (based on that thread, I haven’t checked) doesn’t have a suitable category. So just recording sex correctly wouldn’t be enough. I think it would require FOIs to every Trust providing accommodation, then someone able to aggregate and analyse that data. The data that should be (but isn’t) collected through the existing mixed sex accommodation statistical return.

Will DM you about the FOI

Although Annex B is included in the documents it is not referenced as an acceptable breach anywhere in the documents. In fact other than the contents page it is not mentioned or referenced at all. So if reporting is supposed to be on the list provided (which doesn't refer to annex B or trans people) then the reports since 2009 have all been illegal?

I've been doing a bit of analysis to see what generates the most interest/comments and have the following. We (bold) seem to be doing OK for "unimportant-culture-war" stuff?!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/25/bearded-trans-women-treated-female-wards-scottish-nhs/ 170 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/26/trans-policy-menstruation-mens-toilets-nhs-trust-scotland/ 148 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/14/nhs-discriminates-against-white-job-applicants-in-shortlist/ 1124 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/29/champagne-protects-heart-from-cardiac-arrest/ 119 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/30/doctors-urged-prescribe-exercise-cut-chemo-side-effects/ 30 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/31/trans-row-nhs-trust-refuses-to-change-female-changing-rooms/ 173 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/20/trans-nhs-patients-access-women-only-space-in-london/ 2762 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/23/nhs-hospitals-trying-to-defy-trans-ruling/
1562 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/25/teenage-boys-on-girls-hospital-wards-nhs-gender-rules/ 303 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/27/nhs-to-test-all-gender-questioning-children-for-autism/ 1568 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/28/doctors-brand-supreme-court-trans-ruling-illiterate/ 140 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/01/nhs-puberty-blocker-trial-not-ethical-trump-backed-review/ 12 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/03/nhs-trust-uses-derogatory-terf-slur-in-official-guidance/ 1309 comments
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/04/rape-gangs-dog-whistle-lucy-powell-disgrace/ 1750 comments

@KnottyAuty @TwoLoonsAndASprout I'm happy to take Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

Lovely - thank you! Will DM the new form

@GreenAllOver
links don’t work so removed see next post

Sorry try this linkhttp://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_110047

I've submitted James Paget. It's the first time I've seen a Rainbow Badge assessment report - thank you Ermine! It's 57 pages long and has 48 actions.

There's a Pride Youtube video.

A Celebrating Pride info sheet including this:
''sex reassignment surgery (SRS) – noun : used by some medical professionals to refer to a group of surgical options that alter a person’s biological sex. “Gender confirmation surgery” is considered by many to be a more affirming term. In most cases, one or multiple surgeries are required to achieve legal recognition of gender variance.''

They have a 2023 CQC rating of 'requires improvement'... James Paget Hospital criticised in new CQC report for failing to keep mums and babies safe.
They have included this on their maternity services webpage: ''We offer a range of services for women, birthing people, and families before, during and after birth.'' And in 2024, guidance developed said its staff should use the phrase 'assigned female/male at birth'.
"While most of our maternity service users are women, we recognise that some may identify differently and the language we use is important to make sure everyone feels included."

I couldn't find a lot of policies that had been referenced. FOIs had some links (no longer accessible) but not downloaded docs.

This one has made me quite cross and sad - so much valuable time spent removing protections for women and girls in the name of inclusivity whilst their maternity services are failing.

Thanks, but I just get the cover page from that link, not the whole thing. Seems to be something that the wayback machine often does, annoyingly.

If you do have time to do any more digging, my best guess is that the mixed sex accommodation statistical return guidance and FAQs are the key documents. Though I can’t tell until I see them! Thank you so much for your help.

Here is an interesting bit from the George Eliot Hospital Trust. It made me LOL at the thought of trying to remember all this. What if you had 8 colleagues who each had chosen one of these plus two who had swapped gender?! I would have zero chance of avoiding disciplinary! This is so ageist never mind sexist - I can't remember colleagues' names on occasion and I have known them for 20 years 😂

What you have to do is click on the link then on the next page right click on the link at the bottom of the page and select download then you get the report.

I couldn’t link to the report direct.

@GreenAllOver I spent quite a lot of time this morning as well and couldn’t find the guidance.

FYI National Archives have historical versions of departments websites. The trouble is they are not as interactive as you might want and not all links work.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/find-a-website/atoz/

@Harassedevictee Thanks! I need to find a way to do that on a phone, I can’t right click and none of the options that come up allow me to download. I’ll work on it. And thanks on the National Archives, I’ve been using them too, but as you say, the links are often broken and you can’t use the search function, so it’s a bit tricky to find anything.

I've submitted Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, particularly sparse info as they have provided their Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Policy but not their (named) Transgender Policy in their FOI response. So no specific references relating to staff but the usual guff re single sex wards (mixed, natch).

Also requires improvement and maternity "inadequate" after unannounced visits to both Maternity units on the 6 and 7 November 2023.
“It was reassuring that the CQC confirmed that on both sites staff treated women/birthing people with compassion and kindness, provided a service which was inclusive and took account of women’s individual needs and preferences and achieved good outcomes.”

I'd submitted before checking maternity rating (prompted by YellowRoom) so the info above is not on the jotform

Across East of England - Another thing to look out for - Outhouse Charity and children. Pop any mentions in the any other comments box please?!
Thanks

On the off-chance this works for @GreenAllOver ...

Ive just tried again on my iPad what you do is half click on the link so you get a pop up menu with the option to open in a new tab, down the list it says download linked file.

Thank you!

I’ve just found Christine Burns’ Wikipedia page. Christine was hugely influential at the Dept of Health - commissioning 9 publications in 2006, and writing one (which is all about going beyond the law, I read it yesterday).

I have no proof Christine was behind the change to the mixed sex accommodation guidance that brought in self ID and made wards mixed sex in practice, but not according to the data return. But it is looking likely that Christine was involved, at a minimum.

It would certainly be interesting to FOI Dept of Health for all communications with Christine related to mixed sex accommodation data return guidance, and to ask for the list of contributors and consultees to that guidance’s 2007-9 revisions.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Burns

This isn’t directly from our data, but it’s absolutely about the same stuff we’re collecting:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/05/female-nhs-workers-humiliated-hospital-trans-guidance-claim/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/f57299bc79fc531c

archive.is/k2N8I

Milton Keynes submitted. @TwoLoonsAndASprout are there any more unallocated? I can take on another one or two this week if so

Yes! If you’re happy for me to just assign you, you can have:

• Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust
• Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Many thanks!!

Great, thanks 🙏

@TwoLoonsAndASprout

Thank you for passing these on & I'm sorry that I've been unable to complete them

• Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

• The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

• University Hospitals Birmingham NhS Foundation Trust

Is anyone able to do this one too?

• Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Thank you

Hi hi! Please don’t worry! We are all sorted for all of the Midlands trusts now - many hands make light work, as they say.

@KnottyAuty Hi Knotty. I'm doing Cambridgeshire Community Services Trust which includes Bedfordshire and Luton community services. I have found a recorded webinar on the latter's website entitled Gender Identity and Neurodiversity. It covers 'how to be an ally' from young people with lived experience of being trans and is aimed at parents/carers and professionals. This was produced in partnership with East London NHS Foundation Trust. Was this covered by whoever researched that trust? If not, I'll summarise it because it is post-Cass and doesn't seem Cass-compliant. Link to video here: https://bedslutonchildrenshealth.nhs.uk/news/2024/send-health-focus-week-2024/