"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 3

[AuthorisedCat]

Link to Thread 1, 7-Oct to 23-Oct; pre-hearing discussion, evidence from KD (Day 1) and BH (Day 2).

Link to Thread 2
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5432103-darlington-nurses-vs-county-durham-and-darlington-nhs-trust-tribunal-thread-2

Five nurses working at Darlington Memorial Hospital have filed a legal case suing their employer, an NHS trust, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The nurses object to sharing the women’s changing facilities with a male colleague, Rose, who identifies as female. The NHS trust’s HR department dismissed the nurses’ concerns, stating they should “broaden their mindset” and “be educated”. More details can be found at Sex Matters and at Christian Concern who are supporting the nurses via the CLC.
The hearing started on October 20th, with evidence starting on October 22nd and is scheduled to last 3 weeks. To view the hearing online, requests for access had to be made by October 17th. The hearing is being live tweeted by Tribunal Tweets who have background to this case on their substack. An alternative to X is to use Nitter: nitter.net/tribunaltweets or nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets
The Judge made clear at the start of the public hearing on Day 1 that only TT or press have permission to tweet. If online observers see/hear something in the court that isn’t reported by TT, we don’t mention it until the next time there’s a break. This is a very cautious approach to avoid any accusations of “live reporting” on MN. Commentary on the content of TT tweets is fine as soon as they’re posted on X.
Key people:
C/Ns - Claimants, the Darlington nurses
R/T/Trust - Respondent, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
J/EJ – Judge/Employment Judge
NF - Niazi Fetto KC, barrister for claimants
SC - Simon Cheetham, KC, barrister for respondents
RH - Rose Henderson, trans identifying nurse
CG – Clare Gregory, ward manager
KD – Karen Danson, first claimant to give evidence.
BH – Bethany Hutchison, second claimant to give evidence
AH – Alistair Hutchison, husband of Bethany
Other abbreviations:
WFTCHTJ – Waiting For The Conference Host To Join
ET - Employment Tribunal
DMH/H – Hospital, Darlington Memorial Hospital
CR/CF - changing room or facilities
IX - internal investigation
XX – cross examination

It seems the more media attention and the more complainants the less this lot actually looked to do about it.

It's an example of a HR organisation that is entirely process, rather than people-driven and AT is a classic character. He has been over promoted and can't cope with the responsibility, so his only recourse is to follow the processes in place. He doesn't understand that the policies driving the process constantly evolve and needs others to tell him how to manage that evolution.

NF - Rose moved out of the changing room later in 2025 were you involved in that decision?
AT - no
NF - you were contacted Gill Hunt of NHS England then met with Deputy Director of Nursing.
AT - yes a teams call related to vast amount of media attention. When the trust was named and NHS England asked what was being done re the concerns being made.

He's sounding quite snippy and irritated now. Fed up with the line of questioning because he still thinks the claimants are wrong, or just resigned to having had it pointed out in minute detail how wrong his handling of this bin-fire was?

AT - truculent, petulant, overgrown little boy.

I pay my fucking taxes for this.

AT - RCN interpretation of the guidance yes

What does he mean interpretation, it's the law!

If he's trying to make out that the nurses did a bad thing by going to the media, he is doing the opposite: he's making it obvious that they were going to get nowhere in-house.

NF - a Mr Purdue came to visit the trust.
AT - He did a tour of Durham and Darlington hospital and I gather there was contact with the nurses.
NF - page 28 8 July 2024 to a range of non -ex directors - refers to last meeting. AT - I wasn’t involved was on leave.

I’m ex public sector and there was a push in 2021-23 for managers to conduct RA training. My observation on the training was that there was a huge assumption of knowledge of a large number of topics that would inevitably impact on the quality of the assessment. It felt like a tick box exercise and any RA was better than no RA.

It’s all over the public sector - I work in a totally unrelated area - can’t move for policy-Andys

NF - a Mr Purdue came to visit the trust.
AT - He did a tour of Durham and Darlington hospital and I gather there was contact with the nurses.
Who he, anyone know?

Possibly David Purdue, the chief nurse for NHS England for the North East and Yorkshire.

AT - I wasn’t involved

What DOES this man do?

NF - read p 28/29. Some questions there. Operational and legal. Qs from Mr Crossland ‘were nursing staff consulted in advance’ and ‘did nursing staff raise matters of safety’ and ‘were these addressed’?

AT - I don’t know if the meeting was minuted. I’m not sure if theirs was a formal meeting.
NF - it was agreed after this you would have regular meetings with Mr Crossland to keep him updated.
AT - yes

@SidewaysOtter I think he has a secret broom cupboard filled with biscuits and a pillow for a lovely nap.

All the media reports that he didn’t actually read because there was just so many of them….more than he had ever, ever, ever experienced.

AT seems at least 1000x less competent than Isla Bumba, and he is the Trust Director of HR. This is incredible.

Thank you. He obviously caused a bit of a stir,
'There's a Mr Purdue here to see you'
'Oh no! Not Mr Purdue! Quick, get the squirrels to put down their cans of Red Bull and start shredding!'😄

Ah, but he (presumably) has a Y chromosome - guaranteed promotions in the HR/DEI world.

NF - you had a few meetings were they minuted?
AT - no
J - did the investigation come up?
AT yes . I think Morgan Smith sent me an email
NF - there was a meeting on 17 July , Crossland , mr (inaudible) and you.

😴

Yea the world and his wife (six) are commenting on TT tweets which is only to be expected but the main point is folk who are watching live can’t report what they are seeing hearing live. They can respond to TT tweets and once each session is closed can then comment on their version experience I think for all IANAL common sense dictates.

😂😂😂

Typos!