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!

One of the mental health trusts in the East of England which I audited also included this

Could you hit me up for a couple more Trusts if there are still any waiting to be allocated? Thank you

@FarriersGirl and @Cantunseeit, thank you for those - I’ll do some digging!

That one’s a cracker! Thanks I’ve got that one. There were 2 in the midlands but I’m sure there were others in each region

Not sure, think it was Andy Burnham (not Milburn) as health minister from June 2009 to May 2010?

Thank you! Good spot - got my Andys in a muddle

Berkshire Healthcare submitted

@GreenAllOver
In 2009 the summer recess dates were:
off 21 July 2009 until 12 October 2009
ETA Popped on the timeline also

@PencilsInSpace does read and pop in from time to time, I’ve seen her on a thread in the not too distant past.

Morning - Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust is all yours

Here you go - Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

@GreenAllOver, I assume you’re still the reading other thread, but if not this is full of interesting side information:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5353941-5353941-tom-harris-former-mp-apologises-for-voting-for-gender-recognition-act-2004?reply=145027651&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

(edit - spag)

(And I managed to edit one set of spag and completely miss my word-order-spaghetti…🤦‍♀️)

Ugh! And the link is broken. I should just get off the interwebs at this point. Try this:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5353941-5353941-tom-harris-former-mp-apologises-for-voting-for-gender-recognition-act-2004?reply=145027651&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

How easy is it to find data on assault/sexual assault in NHS Trusts? I wonder if another good press angle might be to look at assault figures for openly mixed sex spaces (as opposed to single gender mixed sex spaces) as a means of highlighting the increased risk to women?

Tricky, if I recall correctly. Someone can correct me if I’m remembering wrong, but I think I found the result of an FOI back when we were doing Scotland that said that the DATIX system didn’t have a specific category for “sexual assault.” I’ll see if I can find it…

Also possibly the EIA angle - how no other protected characteristic is considered. Might be a bit dry though.

From way back in the first thread:

FOI re sexual assault in an NHS Lothian hospital:
https://org.nhslothian.scot/foi/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2025/02/9606.pdf
Summary response for those who don’t want to click through: we don’t have a specific category on DATIX for Sexual Assault or Rape; we do have Sexual Abuse but we don’t consider that to be the same thing so we didn’t look at it. We did a word search but can’t find anything that matches Sexual Assault and Rape. Nothing to provide.

Yeah, I think data around this is termed "sexual safety" and I've come across at least one Trust with mental health inpatient facilities that published data on this (may have been RDaSH). There have also been a number of FOI requests, but with varying success.

I have come across a Single Sex Accommodation Policy that has been updated in light of the 2025 SC ruling. It's not clear where the single rooms are but significant change from pre-SC version.

This is Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

V6 from Ermine's FOI
"5.3.6 Transgender patients Transgender adults, gender variant children and young people are defined as individuals who have proposed, commenced or completed reassignment of gender. The patient should be accommodated according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns that they currently use. Sensitivity to all patients to be considered on room allocation and were practical the transgender patients should be offered a single room. Annex B of the DSSA guidance 2019 outlines how transgender people and variant children should be accommodated (Appendix 6)"

V6.1 available from searching the Trust's website
"5.3.6 Transgender patients
Transgender adults, gender variant children and young people are defined as individuals who have proposed, commenced or completed reassignment of gender.
The patient should be accommodated in a single room. When a single room is not available, this will be escalated operationally (to gain relevant support to agree level of risk to all patients requiring a cubicle) to Chief Operating Officer or appropriate deputy (in hours), On-call manager and Director (our of hours) and the patient should be accommodated based on our knowledge of the patient at the time of admission."

Appendix 6 removed

Holy cows. This is quite significant, no?

Hope so. I should have been a bit clearer, this change is definitely as a result of the SC ruling. the 'Details of change column' for the latest version reads:

"Section 5.3.3 & 5.3.6 updated to reflect new UK Supreme Court ruling regarding definition around gender. Removal of Appendix 6"

However, the staff policy is as yet unchanged 😞

Ok, so baby steps.

Do you remember on April 17 when we all came on here and said “how long should we give these trusts to sort things out so they comply with the SC ruling?” and everyone said “a week!” or “no time at all, the ruling is clear!”…?

Sigh.

SEEN in Health had one example from one trust (others may differ):
There's no specific category for rape. Categories are:

• Sexual abuse of staff
• Sexual aggression by 3rd party
• Sexual aggression patient to patient

In other words the stats are not collected for easy understanding

Good find and reassuring to know that the tide is going quietly out, in much the same way as it quietly came in... Probably best not to fanfare these lawful trusts so they don't get harassed by TRAs?

What I found on a post SC ruling FOI, was that the obvious policies had been suspended/weren't offered up. But the Single Sex (with peanuts) was issued. Which indicated to me that that particular trust hadn't appreciated how far the gender tentacles had spread into lots of policies.

It will take repeated searches and editing to make them all lawful - not necessarily because they are resisting but because they have no clue which policies contain erosion of single sex facilities - like the public the FOI officer took "Single Sex Accomodation" policy to mean just that - when it doesn't! The trusts will have to read every word.

I suppose really the Rainbow Badges scheme should take the lead and issue updated guidance? Working back through their checklists to unpick the edits they previously suggested?