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

@GreenAllOver, thank you for that. It has always felt like this was quite a weird situation, so it’s good to have confirmation that it is, even if that means that we’re all going down rabbit holes to find the source of things.

I think we are all going to qualify for PhDs by the end of this.

Policies tend to track updates and revisions quite carefully but this does not generally apply to guidance in the NHS in my experience anyway.

I have some North East info. Where do I put it?
Thank you to all you amazing people doing this.

Hiya! Are you able to hold on to it for the minute? Maybe download copies of things as pdfs if relevant? We’re just finishing up the East of England collection, and then we need to decide where we’re going next. Hope that’s ok!

What a great summary- thanks!

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Trust submitted, apologies again for the incomplete forms i accidentally sent through to you

I’ve been out this afternoon and you’ve all been really busy! Will get to my desk shortly! Thanks all xx

@GreenAllOvergreat sleuthing on the background / origin / instigators of all this. My view is that together with the evidence of the scale of the outcome, the story of where it all began is equally important/interesting. It illustrates the dangers of failing to safeguard against institutional capture, puts both Labour and Conservative governments in a bad light and hopefully provides the motivation for root and branch reform 🤞

If it hasn’t already been suggested, would it not be a good idea to include the CQC, the independent regulator of health care, etc. in this audit?
Here is their “Brief guide: Assessment of same-sex accommodation.” It writes about single-sex, then switches to “opposite-gender”…
www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/9001415_Brief_guide_Assessment_of_Same_Sex_Accomodation.pdf

Princess Alexander Hospital NHS Trust. Overall a solid 8.5/10 I reckon.

Quick qu. to those of you doing the deep dive into where and how this all came about - how does the stuff that predates the EquAlity Act 2010 sit with the preceding Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (which is presumably what they were trying to subvert at the time)?

Wow. This is incredible work. Well done all auditors. It's all so shocking.

Inspired, I checked out a Trust (in the North West, so I don't think that's being covered yet), I am just going through their 'Annual Report and accounts
2023/24'. Mentions of EDI etc, supporting local Pride - the image they use is of the progress flag, etc, but I did notice that they have listed KPIs and the metrics that they use. One of the Metrics is 'Complaints' and one of the sub-categories is 'Single Sex Accommodation breaches - 2023/24' with a 'Target' of 0 and the 2023/24 figure is '23'.

So I searched their site for single sex accommodation. It says this about breaches:

"Breach defined
A breach of same sex accommodation is the placement of a patient within a clinical setting following admission, where one or more of the following criteria apply:

• The patient occupies a bed space that is either next to or directly opposite a member of the opposite gender.
• The patient occupies a bed space that does not have access to single-sex washing and toileting facilities.
• The patient must pass through an area designated for occupation by members of the opposite sex to gain access to washing and toileting facilities.
• Where no clinical justification exists or where an initial clinical justification applied is no longer appropriate."

This makes no sense to me.

The first bullet point, could, in theory, be a complaint by a man who identifies as a women being placed in a bed space that is next to a man. And that man who identifies as a woman would consider any man (who doesn't identify as a woman) as being a member of the opposite gender.

Whenever I've time, I'm going to try and go through the available reports, mintues and agendas that are available. I think that these might (though they might not) contain info in them that isn't immediately obvious in 'policies' or the website more generally.

There are so many truly inspirational women on here. It gives me hope, and courage. Thank you.

Aw thank you!

And thanks for highlighting the point about the breach classification. I hadn’t spotted that particular scenario. I’d just assume a blind eye was turned to the opposite sex… We will never know because sex and gender are conflated in all the data…

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was absorbed and replaced by the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act then built upon the principles of the 1975 Act, broadening and updating them within a unified legal framework. I think the SC looked at the original definitions of sex from the 1975 Act when coming to their conclusions.

Morning!

It has taken me a lot longer than I expected to tidy up the Midlands information but I think we are there. I'll start pushing it out to the world this week - thanks so much for all your excellent researching. Great work!

I'll move on to tidying up the East of England because you fabulous wims have whipped through that research as only a bunch of raging vipers could! I shall trail in your wake... There is a bit of supplementary research which needs doing to add context to this region if anyone fancies?

On twitter ColchesterMum recorded her own arrest because the charity Outhouse and ? Theatre reported her for harrassment. Those events happened 7 weeks before her arrest at home. Now I don't know a lot about police procedure but the whole thing seemed really weird to me - and a bit of light googling suggests that both the arrest and the search of her home were unlawful. Seems a bit like harrassment by institution TBH - anyway the point is that Colchester mum claims that her local area is #1 or #2 in the UK for numbers of children being transitioned. And that their figures went up after Cass while elsewhere they went down.

So would anyone be up for:
a) trying to find out about the kids' transitioning figures? and local service provision pre and post Cass?
b) background on the two charities. Why was a mum allegedly harassing them? And why they would be calling the police on her?
c) What links the local police might have to the charities that they would carry out an unlawful arrest? And be happy doing that while she filmed them?
d) It seems like the Outhouse was originally set up as an LGB charity in the 1980s(?) but is in the process of switching to a T focussed CIC. Would be interesting to understand timings/reasons for this switch as it is a lot of hassle?

Unless anyone has any strong feelings - in tribute to the Darlington nurses - I was thinking we would go North East next?

https://www.england.nhs.uk/north-east-yorkshire/about/the-nhs-in-ney/trusts/

What do you think?

Here is the Colchestermum snip: https://www.youtube.com/live/LjzUjuTqfjE?t=2875s

Phew! Cambridge University Hospitals was a long one. Lots of things wrong there for the rights of women and their maternity care rated 'requires improvement' too.

Also CUH is supposedly setting up one of the new post-Cass / Cass implementation children's gender services. There is no way, based on the current policies that exist, they will be Cass compliant. Social transitioning of children baked into current policies even if they're unconscious and happen to be wearing what whoever is there deems opposite sex-role-stereotype clothing. Hardly seems compatible with 'social transition is not a neutral act'.

Ugh. That is so disheartening. Thank you for digging all that out.

I'm wondering if at some point we need to write to Wes about how the policies mean staff CAN'T raise concerns about unethical behaviour around sex and gender. Because they clearly can't. There needs to be some independent route to whistleblow about unethical patient care because the internal mechanisms will dismiss anything trying to balance sex realist rights with trans rights. The policies at CUH explicitly state if a trans person says something is 'transphobic' it is, other staff can't question this. So blowing your nose could be deemed 'transphobic' if they say so.

Sandie Peggie's trial showed this clearly, and Ermine Research Group is showing it is not a one off, this is replicated across the country. Depressingly.

Having done a few of these I'm now convinced Sandie must have known she'd be labelled as 'harassing' Dr U, a bigot, committing a 'hate crime', disciplined and suspended. And stood up for women's rights anyway - such bravery! A modern day suffragette for sure.

I just wonder how many women, girls and indeed some men too have had their safety, medical care, privacy and dignity compromised but have never found a way to speak out but been silenced and possibly also excluded from care.

Excellent spot! Thank you xx

Whistleblowing is a very interesting idea. Could we do it already for London? And how would we do it?

@thenoisiesttermagant, I think some sort of conversation with Wes has been mooted. Also with the EHRC - I think @KnottyAuty gave them our Scotland bundle.

If people have ideas about how best to get this into the hands of the right people (and contacts or connections with such people) please feel free to share, either on here or by DM.

The plan at the start was to peak as many people as we could, but the further this goes and the more evident it is that it is woven into the very fabric of the NHS, the more likely it is that we will need to think bigger or sideways or something.

Do you want me to have a dig around to see if there's any precedent for sending a letter like this @KnottyAuty ? We could label it 'Ermine Research Group', and send it to a paper (the Telegraph?) at the same time i.e. an 'open' letter. Or just to Wes, I'm not fussy and open to suggestions.

My thought was that we just say that the policies in hospitals mean anyone trying to whistleblow will be silenced and know they'll be silenced (we have some evidence to support this, plus of course what's already come out in the cases of SP and Darlington) and it's going to cost a fortune in legal fees for the NHS if every woman who is brave enough to go to ET does so. But that this obviously leaves lots of people who simply can't - for various reasons - go to ET or where an ET wouldn't apply e.g. if patient safeguarding is compromised. So can he please set up an alternate way of whistleblowing?

I know lots of the Labour party don't actually agree with the SC judgement, but the fact is they should be scared that so many public sector organisations are pretty openly defying the rule of law and the government of the day. It sets a very worrying precedent on lots of issues.

I just checked. Whistleblowing can only be done by an employee or former employee. What other route is there?

There are some responses coming in on chaperone policy FOIs by John Braithwaite on WDTK. The ones I've looked at using gender, not sex. Also one says a chaperone may not be possible in maternity (Birmingham Womens and Childrens NHS Foundation Trust ). I'm not up to speed on maternity - ut was surprised it didn't refer only to when urget intervention is necessary.

So do keep an eye out in case there's a chaperone policy disclosed for your next analysis. No surprise that the NHS Fife Board says "The NHS Fife chaperone policy is still being developed."

I added chaperone policies and patient guidance and policies on pregnancy, maternity & breastfeeding to the 13 Northern Irish and Welsh FOIs that I did on 30 April (not visible on WDTK) as discussed. The Rainbow Ribbons revealed my local hospital doing "chest feeding" for the "non birthing parent", so I wonder what we'll find. So it'll take another 4-8 weeks to get all those in, on past experience.

Re whistleblowing - in every Trust there should be a Freedom To Speak Up Guardian, who any member of staff can go to raise concerns. The FTSUG can collate concerns, raise issues while keeping the reporting staff anonymous,and is meant to be neutral and outside the hierarchy of the Trust.

The FTSUG at my Trust has pronouns in her email signature. After you interact with she/her, you are automatically sent an email questionnaire about your experience of using the service. This has demographic questions, one asks you your gender, another asks if your gender is the same as the sex you were assigned at birth. So very neutral.