"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 5

[ThreeWordHarpy]

Thread 1, 7-Oct to 23-Oct; pre-hearing discussion, KD (day 1 of evidence) and BH (day 2).
Thread 2, 23-Oct to 28-Oct; BH (day 2), CH, JP, MG (day 3&4), TH, SS, ST, LL (day 4), JS, AT (day 5)
Thread 3, 28-Oct to 29-Oct, AT (day 5&6), TA (day 6&7)
Thread 4, 29-Oct to 31-Oct, TA, AM (day 7) JB (day 8)

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 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 Seamus Sweeney
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
SW - Sue Williams, NHS Trust HR
KD – Karen Danson, first claimant to give evidence.
BH – Bethany Hutchison, claimant
AH – Alistair Hutchison, husband of Bethany
CH – Carly Hoy, claimant
JP – Jane Peveller, claimant
MG – Mary Anne (aka Annice) Grundy, claimant
TH – Tracy Hooper, claimant
SS – Siobhan Sinclair, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust
ST – Sharron Trevarrow, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust, former housekeeper and wellbeing officer
LL – Lisa Lockey, claimant
JP – Professor Jo Phoenix, expert witness
JS – Jane Shields, witness for the claimants
AT - Andrew Thacker, NHS trust Head of HR
TA – Tracy Atkinson, NHS trust HR.
AM – Andrew Moore, NHS Head of Workforce Experience
JB – Jillian Bailey, NHS Workforce Experience Manager

TT

NF I’m content to tailor the question. The impact.
J ok I’m not so concerned about the letter but fine if limited to what witness discussed
NF you say she might lose her job
SW as registered nurses we are bound by NMC but I don’t know the alleged breaches the Trust
SC what does that mean
J Yes
SW if stripped of registration you would lose your job potentially

Overall impression of SW is someone who is straightforward, focused on her job and did it, and when presented with things that were outside of the scope of her job tried to get those whose responsibility it was to get involved.

She also seems to be diligent in wanting the bundles in good order.

I'm not sure SW is doing the respondent's case that many favours. It seems to illustrate again the division between HR/management and the nurses and the fact that HR/management seized the complaints to do nothing with them while fobbing off people like SW.

For comedy purposes only, if you heard the Judge last week you would know that there is only one respondent (singular) because the Trust is one corporate body. 😁

Edit: Sorry! I just love the Judge bringing his 'whole self' to tribunal!

TT

NF thank you no more questions.
J take short break now.

[Ten minutes. Allegedly.]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1985277087993778465.html

So who is next?

Please refer to your username! (Could be the HR person who has to be finished before her daughter's 18th birthday or could be a 'surprise guest'?)

A good witness. She comes across as honest, no side to her, had concerns and went above her boss when she got unsatisfactory answers.

I'd also like to know who told her 'don't get involved'. For some reason, I can't think why, that doesn't sound the same as 'stay impartial'.

To me it is different. Don't get involved is stay out of it. Don't ask questions, don't speak about it. Stay impartial allows conversation but requests no bias.

The next named witness is Sue Williams. They are going at a cracking pace. Two down within an hour or so.

When they were dealing with housekeeping SC said he wanted to deal with other matters concerning witnesses without the public present...

Exactly.

This adds to my suspicion that RH will be a witness but they are trying to avoid saying when in public.

Can they do RH in camera as it were given they've already started on camera?

The regulatory body for both midwives and nurses is the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC). It is they who set the rules & regulations nurses and midwives must comply with and who you appear before if you've been sufficiently bad.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) are unions for those occupations. So non-obligatory and they have no regulatory functions.

TT

References to unknown Cropper ? name above is likely to be Helen Coppock, Associate Director of Nursing (not a tribunal witness)

SW returns as current witness.

SW leaves. New witness.

I think that this was remarked on earlier in a thread. TW spoke about Rose using the changing rooms with her staff happily for years.

But given that Rose would have been off studying possibly and the Covid years the question mark is on when exactly this was.

If Rose was attending uni and then coming into the hospital that might explain irregular hours and a seperate CR pattern from the other Theatre nurses.

This might explain why he was lurking in the CR with no big group of Theatre nurses and that gave him the opportunity to harass nurses from different teams?

Clare Gregory was discussed last week.

From Christian Concern: "At a meeting in May 2025, Atkinson said the nurses needed to be “re-educated,” “broaden their mindset,” “compromise,” and be “more inclusive.” She denied making these remarks.
The Trust’s KC, Simon Cheetham, has said during the hearing that there is a disagreement between Atkinson and the nurses’ matron, Claire Gregory about what was said, with more crucial evidence to follow next week in court."

The amount of coyness, from J and particularly from SC, about the schedule is noticeable. They're definitely keeping it under wraps more than I'm familiar with in other ETs.

Morning all

Who is this witness?

Waves

If he's off sick then they may not know if he's coming or not, because it wouldn't be what I'd call a relaxing experience. I can't see the judge being too happy if they arranged the tribunal round him only for him not to show up!

Claire Gregory

TT

Sue Gregory (SG) is discussing Lesley Smedley who she'd contact [apologies - sound issues]
NF In 2023 yr office is the locker room under discussion?
SG Yes. My door was always physically open on that corridor
NF Where were u movd to
SG Around the corner to the start of the ward

I think Rose's training was 2019 to 2022. Which would help explain why his behaviour was less noticeable during those years when he wouldn't have necessarily worked a regular shift pattern, but he should have been an ordinary member of staff at the time the complaints began?

TT

NF Y've never seen Rose
No
NF Y've listened to evid to date
Yes
NF Listened to evid re walking thru the ward and out again
SG Yes. Could have been in the dept collecting trolleys
NF Is about RH walking down and out
SG I wldnt know why wld do that