"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 7

[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)
Thread 5, 31-Oct to 04-Nov; JB (day 8), SW, CG, JR (day 9)
Thread 6, 04-Nov to 05-Nov; RH (day 10), SW (day 11)

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, NHS 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
AT – Anna Telfer, NHS Deputy Director of Nursing
SW – Sandra Watson, Matron for General and Elective Surgery
JR – Jodie Robinson, manager of Rose

What a load of tripe.

My friendship circle is based on politeness and practicality.

Rules on who goes in the front depends first on who gets travel sick. They get priority cos you don't want them vomiting everywhere. My friend always gets front passenger.

Then how big the car is and where it's best to sit.

I drive a small car. If we have friends in the car it depends on who is driving. If it's DH, I'll generally sit behind him as I'm short. If I'm driving, the best seat is behind me.

I have never adopted the rules above. It's wanky nonsense.

Sorry to miss @JoPhoenix on here last night, lovely that she turned up to comment. I still think her expert report should be required reading by every HR department in the UK. My DH read it and he agreed.

All these revelations in this ET, I would hope that the CEO of the hospital was working with the local MP. When I googled to see who the CEO is, wouldn’t you know that they’ve literally just resigned 😳😵. What a coincidence, NOT…..so the outgoing CEO will never be held to account for the rampant bullying in that NHS Trust.

The Chairman has gone too. "the Trust's Chairman, Professor Richard Scothon, stepped down in October 2025" Sue Jacques was given a bloody OBE! We always said it stood for other bastards blokes efforts.....but that's a disgrace.

Still here. Will hang around for the weekend. Trying desperately to avoid marking!

So who has oversight here @anyolddinosaur? Is the new CEO from within ranks too?

Well yes. Sickness, size and also any disabilities and agility.
perhaps those ‘rules’ applied somewhat in about the 1950s when people might Get Out the Car and Go for a Drive on a Sunday afternoon?

Glad you'll be around and very much look forward to your input!

Lol! I should NOT be mentioned in the same breadth as the incredible @JoPhoenix. I'm a nobody. 😂Now, a news article announcing an actual roving public enquiry could just about share the limelight with her. If it ever does happen, it will be partly due to her and all the others who have endured so much for the cause.

It was so wonderful catching up on the tribunal last night. What a breadth of fresh air, even if it is completely bonkers that these ideas even need to be aired. I mean, come on. My answer to why women are more fearful of getting undressed in front of men than vice versa is a resounding "Duh!"

And now I'm off to read Jo's much more eloquent and intelligent version. 😁

A reminder that Support the Darlington Nurses will signpost a garden that is gradually being planted but has a long way to go to reach their target.

This is the new Interim chair of the Trust https://www.cddft.nhs.uk/about-us/news/trust-appoints-new-interim-chair and this is the new CEO https://www.cddft.nhs.uk/about-us/news/new-chief-executive-appointed-county-durham-and-darlington-nhs-foundation-trust

I am concerned that the Crowd Justice plea for help with costs is going so slowly?:

The request for help with funding seems very low key. Others seem to raise huge sums quite quickly. Any insights? Surely not because it's Christian led? Or are people so sure they'll win they'll receive a payout/compensation?

Or like me, thought that because Wes Streeting got involved, the whole thing would be sorted long before now. Hilarious, I know.

Anyway, I've added some seeds. Just searching 'Support darlington nurses ' shows they are asking for 50k help and are currently at under 6k.

But the big one at the old Derry & Toms was such a fabulous place to visit!
And yes, big communal changing rooms at e.g. Dorothy Perkins were just a vile embarrassment.

And then we met that delightful theatre sister and found out who he got that idea from. And so, more importantly, did the judge. Fingers crossed that KD will get the vindication she deserves.

@JoPhoenix can i please dm you about the results of our NHS Audit of single sex spaces? We are struggling to get the results into the public domain

From the press release
This leadership change marks an important step for CDDFT as it focuses on providing safe, high-quality care and continuing to build a culture where colleagues can work together with pride and purpose.
😉

Editorial note:

Delete colleagues can work together with pride and purpose

Replace with favoured colleagues can continue to stab others in the back with total impunity

Sadly I've seen negative comments on social media about the involvement of Christian Concern. People just don't realise that they were the only ones who stepped forward to help the nurses.

@RovingPublicEnquiry

When I write about toilet safety, it does feel stupid that I am writing down the bloody obvious. I studied biology so see it as humans being very typical of most mammals in differences between the sexes. Territory marking, aggression, sneaky fucker syndrome. I bet no one read that last line and thought ‘female’.

I like your succinct reasoning which should have been the answer to whether a man uses that women’s changing room, right at the beginning of this, which would have saved time, money, accusations (true or false about anyone) and distress:

‘it is completely bonkers’.

or even more succinctly,

NO.

@JoPhoenix Firstly, thank-you. Your first reaction on seeing the GI steam roller was to stand in its path and say no - this has given many others strength to also stand up.
The scope of your Darlington report is narrow, it only covers the questions deemed relevant to the tribunal. Given free rein - what are the most important questions that you feel would warrant a similar treatment?

But you could be everything we all need!

@jophoenix thank you so much for sharing your paper. I found it really interesting and thought provoking.

Nice morning for a spot of gardening, in fact. Advice for Jo as the marking deadline looms - the only thing that works is a trail of Smarties leading to your desk. But so well done for your report, I’m sorry the judge waved to stop you speaking, but perhaps he thought SC had suffered enough.

Sure

Apologies, tried to edit to remove KlndleKlub quoted in error, but failed dismally.

That's a great (and huge) question. Let me think on it.