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!

@KnottyAuty and team well done.

May I suggest you ask Sex Matters if they would hold the data and make it available via their website.

So impressed with this project well done !!!!

@KnottyAuty @TwoLoonsAndASprout did you still need feedback about this policy from FOI request? Realised I have not been sent a SE England jotform but would be happy to fill one in if you still need the info

Oh oops! I meant to let you know that I found your FOI so was able to download the relevant docs. Thank you so much for taking the time to put the FOI in! Super helpful.

It needs a summary so that simple politicians can understand it. Something that will make a headline and front page.
A big Launch with a personality. Hadley Freeman or Rod Liddle. Someone who will keep it going.
Tell The Times or Daily Mail how much work you have put in.

Thank you all for the suggestions! Feel free to share more, but do also be assured that @KnottyAuty is all over this, and has made the appropriate connections and plans!

Thank you, very reassuring.

@KnottyAuty
Hopefully we can find somewhere to host the data as a permanent record in due course. If anyone has any ideas or contacts who can help. Please do let me know.

What about Prof Alice Sullivan who did the govt report earlier in the year on the accuracy of data on sex and gender?

Has Kathleen Stock been asked for her ideas.

Fantastic work everyone!

That is a good idea. She would also have access to fancy tools to enable the data to be easily understood.

No problem. Glad it was helpful for you

Having slightly run out of steam myself I had thought we could send off the tables and the journos could do the counting up. But @Cantunseeit’s impressive spreadsheet will do that heavy lifting and from that she can generate stats/summary statements.

I’ll ask about a launch - hadn’t thought of that. Thanks

Thanks @KnottyAuty! I’ve seen some rumblings on X today about the Fife Equality Impact Assessment which the court asked for and was told didn’t exist. Turns out it did (though maybe the key people didn’t know about it or use it?), and it wasn’t in line with the law. Maybe that’s a hook for this week, given that Sandie Peggie’s tribunal starts up again this week?

Annoyingly, I can’t find the original thread I saw, but this links to the archived copy someone found: https://x.com/Tea94852859/status/1902681853577867722. I’ll keep looking, as the original thread had a lot of discussion about how on earth could this have every been seen as lawful - to which the answer is, because all the guidance said it was, and that’s why the entire NHS has similar Equality Impact Assessments leading to unlawful policies.

Well there’s been a whole lot of number crunching and checking going on for the last few weeks so it’s been very quiet here… but we have finally topped and tailed the enormous NHS England Audit! Looking at the mountains of data you’ve all unearthed - it’s really impressive! And not a little intimidating! Amazing what a bunch of feminist wiki auditors can do?! Well done everyone!

Oh wow well done! What a fantastic achievement!

Thank you @KnottyAuty for the idea, the threads and pushing it all through to the end. As one of the auditors and number crunchers and checkers, I can say this project has been quite something and I am a very proud viper. If some thing on this scale has been done by a corporate organisation there would have a planning team with input from comms , IT, data analysts etc. There would have been a training day for auditors and a load of resources spent. But it was us mums netters, just getting on with it in our spare time.

Looking forward to seeing the impact although it will take a bit of time for the journos to get through it all.

I’ve just asked Wes Streeting a question about the 2009 guidance allowing patient self ID, over on the ask the Health Secretary thread. Will be interested to see if he chooses to answer it.

I've also asked about the fact that the NHS is completely ignoring the Supreme Court on that thread. Are they more likely to ask him questions on topics that have been raised by many different posters?

Also - brilliant work on the audit Knotty and co! I'm pround to have made even a small contribution to it.

I saw that - well done!

It wouldn’t have been possible without everyone chipping in. Whether you did one or 30 it got the job done in 6 months!!! I’m blown away by how brilliant everyone has been. It’s not glamorous but it’s such useful information to have collected and logged. Back in February I assumed the whole Peggie thing was a mistake… my eyes are well and truly open to the wholescale unlawful policy and practice now.

Quite amazing that our public bodies can get so far from common sense and the law. Like McCartheyism in the US it will be fascinating to look back on this very weird belief system. But such a shame that so many have been caught up in it and are ruining their health - I’m worried for the osteoporosis and sterility scandals to come.

Hi, I thought the amazing women on here might be best placed to advise me on this.
I work for a large mental health trust. Like almost everywhere, we still have the typical gender policy on our intranet - be inclusive, everyone who feels like a lady can use the ladies' toilets etc. (oh and people who are gender questioning might need 2 ID badges, people might express their gender only at work).

We have a CQC review visit coming up, and to be honest I'm in two minds whether or not to try alerting the trust to the legalities/risk/safeguarding issues - I'm so pissed off with their response post-LWS that I'm tempted to just let them crack on.

But if I did want to highlight it, who do you think I should contact? There's been a recent message about possible CQC themes including "sexual safety" - messages come out from the Executive Director of Workforce and Organisational Development - there’s also a “CQC compliance team”

I tried looking on CQCs own webpages, but didn’t find anything useful about this.

I’m thinking of a brief message, alerting them to the policy, mentioning potential legal risks and safeguarding issues, offering to signpost to further resources if needed.

Has anyone else done similar? Has anyone got any response from a trust when an illegal policy has been highlighted?

Thank you, as always.

I would be inclined to leave it alone. If you do alert your boss and you are proved right. Well, they won't thank you!
If you want lasting changes wait for an authoritised outsider to corect them, The CQC.
Who knows what they will make of it untill the guidance is published?

The CQC are or certainly were captured so there may well be no point if they're still judging Trusts on whether they are being inclusive to service users' gender expression, or whatever the phrase was.