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

If you can DM an idea of dates for your correspondance/complaints then we could maybe FOI them. It is often repeated "there were no complaints" so it would be show that this is not entirely true

We have graduated!

🎓🎓🎓

You have got to be kidding me - there are multiple trusts who have called women’s rights campaigners TERFs in their written policies?

Oh, I keep thinking I’m becoming immune to this, and then…

Check this out - a whole study guide on how to improve your Stonewall pyramid scheme scores on the doors: https://www.bsmhft.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Stonewall-Feedback-Report-.pdf

ETA "Your policies are close to being good practice, but need some language tightened up before we can award as there is some gendered language. We recommend that you remove the terms "mother" and "father" from the body of your policies"

I like that!

I was also wondering about Ermine Army…

Right, vipers. Knotty has spoken: we are going for East of England!

Below is a reminder of the trusts. I apologise - if you have already bagsed one upthread, can you let me know again, because I’ve lost track a bit!

Also! If you are a brand new auditor, could I get you to take just one trust to start with? It seems an easy task, but it can actually be time-consuming, frustrating and depressing. Don’t dive in to the deep end straight away!

Ok, trusts here:

Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes

• Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
• North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust
• Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Hertfordshire and West Essex

• East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
• Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
• Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
• Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
• West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Mid and South Essex

• Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
• Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Norfolk and Waveney

• James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Norfolk Community Health & Care NHS Trust
• Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust

Suffolk and North East Essex

• East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
• East Suffolk and North East Essex NHS Foundation Trust
• West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

I'll take Mid and South Essex for starters, @TwoLoonsAndASprout

Happy to pick up others as needed.

And I'd also wondered about Ermine, it seems fitting. Ermine Research Group?

Can I take NW Anglia please.

I like the Ermine reference but also the vipers…
Ermine-Vipers Archivists? EVA for short

Best I could come up with!

@TwoLoonsAndASprout
I had a quick scout back through the thread and very kindly the offers were:

@Faffertea North West Anglia
@teawamutu mid and south Essex

Not sure about other offers - sorry if I have missed you xx

I do write (and work as a marketer). It's left me with a cynical appreciation of human nature and how we tend to rely on group think as a shortcut when we are not heavily immersed or invested in the subject.

All yours - I’ll DM you the new form!

NE Anglia yours. Will DM you!

I’ve been out all day - just catching up. More great coverage 👏👏👏

I’ll take Bedford and Milton Keynes and happy to do some more digging on Annex B

Bedford and MK all yours! Will DM.

And please do dig - I’m very curious why there was such a push for a secret single gender policy!

Love Ermine Research Group- It’s got a ring to it, you can see it in the paper ‘According to data uncovered by vipers from the Ermine Research Group…”

@TwoLoonsAndASprout @Cantunseeit Is there some way to share the detail and archived links I’ve found so far on Annex B, which might save you some time? I’m planning to do some digging tomorrow, too.

If you can cope with the clunky interface, you could DM me for the minute?

I could add a jotform for you?

I would be happy to take Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Wims! Thanks so much for all your great research. I'm just trying to whip the Midlands results into shape - sorry for going a bit quiet while I wrestle with it all behind the scenes.

Since the first surveys I have been working on how to capture the results in an orderly way and it seems like the best way is to try to standardise the presentation. So here is a screenshot of how one trust looks like once I take the info out of Jotform and paste it into the big word document.

This one is quite small and fits into a neat box. but most of them aren't as tidy!
As you will have noticed lots and lots of the policies use similar text, so as we get further on, it is more of the unusual phrases or clauses we need to look for. When we find them, I highlight these in yellow so they stand out for the journalists to decide what interests them most.

I usually give them a summary at the very top of the word doc flagging which trusts are worth a look. And highlighting any interesting personalities or newsworthy items for this area - for example a board member who has said publicly they will ignore the Supreme Court etc

Up to now I have been using footnotes to reference in the different policies and webpages but it is sooo fiddly. So this time I've changed the Jotform - could you paste in the relevant policy URL/weblink next to the reference please? If you flag multiple pages just use the URL once and then reference the PP (page number).

Hope that helps to know what it looks like at the back end and that you have understood my ramblings. And thanks so much for all your hard vipering!

8 press articles out of 2 regions so far - amazing work!

I can do James Paget.
Really interested in the pre/Lansley stuff and the why and how.
I've been reading Kate Atkinson's Death at the sign of the rook and now know a bit about ermines and stoats x

@KnottyAuty I’m DM’d TwoLoons, but if you set up a jotform then let me know and I’ll upload what I have to that. The information I have is in the form of a timeline - so I think something like date, summary of what it is, link, space for any comments / thoughts (eg some of the wording changes subtly between versions) would work.

I'm happy to take Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - but can't get to it until Tuesday so if someone can do it sooner, please reallocate.

Or just give me any of the ones remaining if it's taken.

Today's Mail online has picked up the Telegraph article:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14676245/NHS-trust-uses-offensive-terf-slang.html