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

Happy to give it a go.

Hello vipers!

I’m going to be away from the interwebs for a bit. I’m posting the current state of play on the NE & Y trusts - if you finish your current one and would like to grab another, please take one of the not-yet-claimed ones and let us know on here which you’re taking. Many, many thanks!

Trusts in the North East and Yorkshire [Italics = claimed, strikethrough = completed]

Acute

• Airedale NHS Foundation Trust - NeedMoreTinfoil
• Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - teawamutu
• Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - teawamutu
• Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust - Faffertea
• County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust - Cantunseeit
• Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - NeedMoreTinfoil
• Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust - WithSilverBells
• Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust - ExDerryGirl
• Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - NeedMoreTinfoil
• Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust - teawamutu
• North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust - ExDerryGirl
• Northumbria Health Care NHS Foundation Trust - FarriersGirl
• Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust - YellowRoom
• North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
• Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
• The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust - YellowRoom
• The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
• York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Ambulance

• North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust
• North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
• Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Community and mental health

• Bradford District Care NHS Trust
• Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust - Blackmetallic
• Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust - Cantunseeit
• Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust - YellowRoom
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust - FarriersGirl
• Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust - umbel
• Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust - umbel
• South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
• Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust - Blackmetallic

Specialist

• Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust - thenoisiesttermagant

Thanks @TwoLoonsAndASprout !
I hope it’s a restful break xx

I’ll be heading off for half term on Friday so I’ll not be around as much either but will pop in. Am hoping to be able to have a proper look at East of England having done the first pass last week. I just can keep up with you all 😊

And thanks all vipers for keeping going on North East - sterling work!

• Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust - WithSilverBells

I submitted that at the weekend @TwoLoonsAndASprout 😎I'll try to take another next weekend

Have a lovely break @KnottyAuty and @TwoLoonsAndASprout 😎⛵

Before you go, how do I get the jotform for North Cumbria please?

Have a lovely break!

You can use the same link - it’ll give you a new, blank form.

I can do another one - how about The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust unless anyone else has earmarked it?

Thank you! I’ll need to send you a new link for this area’s form. Gimme a second!

Just to say that i had hoped we’d get some more press this week but there’s been a lot of news. So been bumped to next week. I’ll keep you posted but we should get some coverage

I've submitted Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

Patient-facing webpage contradicts their policy for Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation - available via FOI only.

There is a 2024 'Zero Tolerance to LGBTQIA+ Discrimination Framework and Reporting Tool' which includes this:
'A transgender woman staff member was about to go into the female staff changing rooms as they had always done. Another staff member, who was believed to be from another area due to staffing issues and therefore was unfamiliar with this staff member, then intervened and pointed them in the direction of the male changing rooms. The staff member they had addressed then had to awkwardly explain that they were a transgender woman, at which point the other staff member apologised and they carried on the day amicably. Unfortunately this experience has stuck with this transgender staff member to this day and is something she is wary of whenever she goes to work or has to move to a different ward/ environment.'
Also advises not to compare intersex people with earthworms

Explains discriminatory behaviour (overt and covert), Micro-aggressions, Micro-Assaults, Micro-Insults and Micro-Invalidations. One example of a Micro-Assault is 'moving away' - one for Dr Upton.

Earthworms 😂

Is a micro-invalidation when you don't say "Oh my god! Your miniskirt and fishnets look great on you and totally appropriate for work!"?

I'll do SW Yorkshire Partnership this weekend. I don't think anyone's got it?

FFS!! You know, I just can't imagine having the headspace at work to dwell on what someone said to me - if all the "micro aggressions" we were all subjected to at work "stuck with [us] to this day and is something she is wary of whenever she goes to work or has to move to a different ward/ environment" we'd never get anything done!

And lol at Earthworms, that's class.

Just read our staff gender policy, which still says that staff "may need two identity badges" - interestingly it was revised in 2024 and they took out the bit explaining WHY they might need two badges (the Pips Bunce reason)

I objected to the policy when it was introduced in ?2017, but did so anonymously so never heard back. It has all the usual outrageousness.

Please can I add my latest outrage here, just to share.

The manager of a supported living accommodation for people with learning disability and severe autism (24 hour support at least 1:1) contacted our team for advice. This was regarding a client - severe autism, LD, verbal but obvious severe communication difficulties.

Their query was about how to help the client understand the situation regarding a support worker.

The manager said of the support worker "the lady in question is currently transitioning from male to female" - and the client was "not understanding or accepting this".

TBH I was outraged not so much by the manager, but by everything that has led up to this even being a question.

And how ridiculously people feel they have to pussyfoot around even asking questions - ""the lady in question is currently transitioning from male to female" - took me a while to figure out what he meant, and my communication is fairly ok.

The advice clearly has to be that they must be client-centred, and this means working with the client's needs. And if the support worker cannot tolerate the clients needs and communication style, then they should not be working in that environment.

I mean, I get called all sorts of things at work, it's the nature of the job! I wouldn't choose to work in that environment if it offended me, and I certainly wouldn't expect clients to change how they present in order to please me!

I just think that it's outrageous that the question even needs to be asked

Caring About Dignity might be helpful. Michael Foran has also written in this area.

www.caringaboutdignity.org/about/

Thank you so much, that IS helpful xx

The same policy is in force at Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust. Which is now submitted at long last.

I'll take North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust as it's next on the list of unclaimed and have a go at it sometime next week.

I hope everyone has a great half term!

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust submitted

Thanks all! Just a quick check in and I can see you’re all doing brilliantly 😍 very interesting that micro aggression policy. Never seen that before! When I first started work there was a topless calendar on the office wall - is that a micro or a macro aggression?! 🤣

Just to say I’m sorry I’ve been AWOL. Further work related busyness but should be able to get back to it later this week!

Sorry, I'm always coming here to ask about related issues but not the key focus of the thread.
Our trust used to have a Women's and Children's Division. (I have photographic evidence from a December 2019 newsletter).
There were no newsletters during covid. Then suddenly by late 2022 it had become the Family and Specialist Services division.

Now it is possible this change was for operational reasons, expanding the division to include Sexual Health. But I am suspicious that the timing coincided to working up for the Rainbow Badge award which specifically demanded use of gender neutral language:

"Gynaecology

2. Do clinics have gendered names (e.g. ‘Women’s Health’) or are they
named for the purpose (e.g. colposcopy)?
Action: We recommend ensuring that clinics have names that are names for their purpose rather than in a gendered way."

I did suddenly notice the appearance of a sign for Colposcopy outside the main gynae clinic, which isn't signed/named as Gynae or similar, but can't put a date to it as I wasn't alert to what was going on.

I'd dearly like to know a bit more about the discussions behind the naming of clinics and loss of the Women's division. Can I send an FOI requesting minutes of meetings and list of those present? I'm struggling to think of sufficiently tight wording to pin down what I am looking for, as presumable there are lots of trust meetings going on all the time where there will be multiple items on the agenda and something like this can be pretty much slipped in and waved through.

Does anyone have any good ideas for rooting out this information?
Thanks

North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust now North Cumbria Integrated Care just submitted.

Maybe you could start by asking for (or googling for) the Rainbow Badges review document. If you’re correct then all of these items will be listed there?

@umbel

I found some of the documents discussed in the CQC Brief guide: Assessment of same-sex accommodation (Brief guide 27: Assessment of same-sex accommodation V3, June 2019
Review date: June 2020)

https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/9001415_Brief_guide_Assessment_of_Same_Sex_Accomodation.pdf

The NHS Confederation page linked below wasn't found

Delivering same-sex accommodation in mental health and learning disability services. NHS Confederation. January 2010. Briefing 195. www.nhsconfed.org/Publications/briefings/Pages/Delivering-same-sex-accommodation-mental-health-learning-disability.aspx

Eliminating Mixed Sex Accommodation: From the Chief Nursing Officer and Deputy NHS Chief Executive. November 2010. PL/CNO/2010/3.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215932/dh_121860.pdf

Eliminating Mixed-Sex Accommodation. From the Chief Nursing Officer and Deputy NHS Chief Executive. 10 February 2011.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215773/dh_124233.pdf