NHS Policy Audit - working party -Thread #3

[KnottyAuty]

NHS Policy Audit - working party -Thread #3

Original thread #1 here:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5291237-nhs-policy-audit-working-party?page=1
Thread #2:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5322494-nhs-policy-audit-working-party-thread-2

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!

Hello - here to volunteer. Please let me know how I can assist.

It never ends.
NHS England » LGBT+ health share.google/df07iYEFv65Z1uF45

Literally this - odd isn’t that not many people are aware!

Thanks for doing this because how amazing that @FarriersGirl nailed all the big issues in one post…. And that we thought that it might not be all of them?

Ah those innocent days…

Amazing! 🤩 Brilliant work!

Ooh thanks - do you have direct link please?
Some of us are wary of clicking trackable links - thanks!☺️

Ha - should have read the full thread. Nothing worse than a volunteer when the work is done.

That is good of you but the audit is complete. We have a large and unique dataset that will get a few tweaks and refinements in the next couple of weeks but provides a lasting record of the level of institutional capture within the NHS.

Sorry about the link
NHS England » LGBT+ health https://share.google/OR44923SKPmdgAmz

Gah, it's shown the same.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/equality/equality-hub/patient-equalities-programme/lgbt-health/

Ah those innocent days…I know @KnottyAuty , at that point I thought I had the misfortune to live near a particularly egregious example 🙁

And instead, you summed up the entire project before any of us lifted a finger. We needn't have bothered if only we'd known...

I don't know what format you're thinking of for the final report, but if you were going to do an intro, this little story might make a really nice way in to it all.

I do this sort of thing in my day job, so shout if I could be of any use.

Hello. May I help with this task? I have a strong background in management systems.
I will have to join MN premium to access DMs. But will do so if thats the best way to communicate. 😎

@KnottyAuty

Hello! Thanks for your offer of help but the audit is now completed! Someone enthusiastic mentioned tackling education but that will be on another thread another day… 😊

That was a mammoth task, round of back slaps and cheers to @KnottyAuty, @FarriersGirl and all their magic helpers. Looking forward to seeing what happens next!

Wow what an achievement. Well done 😎

WOW! It's complete! How wonderful.

Congratulations and many thanks to you all for doing this. It was in the press early on, but did they get tired of reporting on it - same old, same old, perhaps? But it's great to have all this data to show how ridiculously captured our health system is and one day, hopefully, people will look back and say 'Really? They were so insane?'

I think you had a reporter on board with this. There is surely some scope for an article to say that of the All the XXX number of Health Trusts in the UK, none(?) comply with the rules to have single sex accommodation for patients.

Or if there are any exceptions - only 1 out of XXX the total. People just don't realise this is the case until it happens to them.

Thank you all for the congratulations and the support. It’s been a mammoth and at times unpleasant project, but as I’ve said before, one with absolutely the best co-workers.

Wrt more news coverage, don’t worry, @KnottyAuty is highly organised and on top of things. We will, of course, keep everyone posted!

Thank you for being so relentlessly organised. I am in awe and fully appreciative. This shows how damage is done bit by bit, trust by trust. A great light shone on a huge, worrying mess. Congratulations.

In some ways one of the problems is that there is just too much to write about! Too many strange and surprising things being done in our name and unlawfully. Journalists cant write about the same thing all the time. And then yes there’s lots of repetition within the policies where things have been cut and pasted - a process now known by me as “to Bumba” 🤣. So after our first flush of articles up to June the journalistic interest switched to the end story which is the overall survey result. There’s strong interest once we’ve got the results all tabulated and prepared. So it will be a bit quiet on this thread while we beaver away behind the scenes but hopefully there will be some results before we are all “back to school” in early September. Which I have to say is unbelievable that we - a random group of volunteers - audited all the policies in 5 months and got the results out in (hopefully) 6?! Well done all!

A good time to get the info out would be when the Sandie Peggie ET reconvenes in September or when the Darlington nurses ET starts and hits the news.

So the story isn't "this is just a few people making a fuss about nothing" but "this potentially affects everyone."

YY, exactly @Peregrina

Oh don’t worry - as I say, @KnottyAuty is on top of things.

Such brilliant work.

Thought on strategy/objectives. If our aim is to get these policies out of the NHS and replace with SS provision, should we consider giving Wes Streeting/his office a heads up/preview of the research before it’s reported in the media?

My thought process is:

• when seeking change, it’s usually a good idea to make it as easy as possible for the decision makers to say yes
• big shouty media headlines which the government is asked to respond to will likely elicit a defensive response (or no response at all)
• a heads up could give WS the opportunity for WS to be the good guy (blame the current situation on the previous Tory governments) and commit to positive change

clearly the last bulletin is naive and over-optimistic as this would take more time than we’d be willing to give it (but there are many examples of govt policies being created in the can on the way to the event at which they were announced).

Has anyone got public policy/ lobbying expertise who could give a view? I can also see alternative bullet point 3

• govt doubles down with much better rebuttal as now has time to organise

v aware this may be a shit idea (full disclosure, it came to me while washing my hair in the shower 🤣).