SEENinHealth Interactive Map of (unlawful) NHS single sex and trans self ID policies for whole of UK - check out your Trust and find template letters to call for the return of lawfulness to the NHS!

[KnottyAuty]

Very proud to announce that SEENinHealth has published an interactive policy map on their website here:

https://seeninhealth.org/nhs-foi-map/

This is a huge milestone for the fabulous 40 or so mumsnetters who worked together to audit these NHS policies last year and "keep the receipts" which form the basis for this map. SEENinHealth have passed on their thanks to you all!

It is thought that there have been no single sex spaces in the NHS since 2009 despite public declarations to the contrary. The gender self ID policies on this map were in force in 2024-2025 and we found no evidence of any protected single sex spaces for staff or patients across the UK - over 300 Trusts!

We have been doing a follow up sample of FOI searches this month. The results are coming in but so far no Trusts have updated to lawful single sex spaces yet - all are waiting for EHRC guidance... the map will be updated in due course.

Please do use this data to help hold your elected representatives and NHS Trusts to account. And share with others. Sample letters and contact details are linked from the map page to make it easy to request that your Trust complies with the law.

SEENinHealth will be launching the map officially tomorrow so any help boosting their social media posts would be great thank you.

It started to go "all badly wrong" in 1989 with the fragmentation of the NHS into the "Purchaser Provider Split" then the Internal Market, the creation of semi-autonomous Foundation Trusts and removal of responsibility from the Secretary of State to NHS England, Scotland, etc.

Lots of jobs for HR, Business Managers, etc. and then later DEI posts and Depts. to waste yet more money that could be going to patient services. At the same time, the Agenda for Change Pay Scheme deliberately decapitated clinical services career structures, with posts requiring clinical expertise and experience being replaced by General Managers.

All those General Management, HR and supporting Admin posts need to justify their existence, so there is needless reinvention of the wheel and careerist General Managers can move onwards and upwards with a spurious "improvement record" on their CVs whilst leaving chaos in their wake.

I agree with this, but I'd just like to correct this point:

I thought we have three NHS organisations (E&W, Scotland, NI). Surely that should mean a maximum of 3 sets of policies to comply with national legislation.

Health is devolved in Wales, so there are are actually 4 branches to the NHS.

PP have highlighted the biggest problem with the National Health Service is that it isn't national but is actually a couple of hundred competing fiefdoms all reinventing the wheel. The senior leadership team love their CEO, CFO, CTO titles & think that they are running businesses. It's bollocks. The old structure of Regional Health Authorities & Area Health Authorities was far more efficient. Fifty years ago a hospital would run with a handful of admin staff under the watchful eye of clinicians. It's now overrun with people with "Manager" in their job title who have no reports.

I will never forget being staggered to realise that individual Trusts had to bid against each other to purchase PPE, in the early days of the pandemic.

Fifty years ago a hospital would run with a handful of admin staff under the watchful eye of clinicians.

My dad was a GP and complained about this a lot. He started off at the old John Radcliffe in Oxford and he told me that if a light bulb needed changing or there was a leak in the roof you went to the administrator who got it fixed. He'd say 'I'm supposed to be making people better, not spending my time filling in forms!' and the number of managers and administrators frustrated him so much. He joined the NHS in the 1950s and was immensely proud of what it was at the time and him and all the other doctors and nurses truly believed they were part of something good. By the end of his working life it had all gone to pot and he was very glad to retire.

why the fuck does each trust have their own policies on this or anything else? I thought we have three NHS organisations (E&W, Scotland, NI). Surely that should mean a maximum of 3 sets of policies to comply with national legislation

This is what I wondered.

Furthermore, this is going to be really time consuming to root out- if there’s ever the political will to do so. Trusts have incorporated these ideas into all sorts of different policies- not all trusts in the same way so it’s not just a case of replacing the single sex accommodation policy. For example we often found the ideology in chaperone policies and or patient privacy and dignity policy. Same with staff policies. Some trusts have some kind of supporting trans colleagues type of policy but the same content could be in other policies as well or instead.

There’s going to need to be a whole lot of ctrl F happening!

Mine three - interesting that you have managed to get any kind of response out of Foord - I have written to him twice and never so much as an boilerplate reply. Much as I disliked our previous Tory (not Parrish, I must be further S/E than you), he did actually reply to me when I once wrote. Foord does not cover Exeter, but both the RDUH and DPT have outlying estate in Foordland.

I have professional relationships with both trusts so feel uncomfortable writing. But I am also a (potential) patient at both, so hmmm.

And more thanks to @KnottyAuty and all who sailed with her.

Good evening! I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine but I have a favour to ask - we stored a lot of the website data via archive links so that the web pages cant be removed. Unfortunately it seems that the pages aren’t very accessible or are terribly slow to load.

If you have 5 mins could you report back here on your Trust?

Is it ok or problematic?
Which browser?
Are you mobile or PC and which operating system?

Thank you!

Mine is ok.
Chrome
PC
Windows 11 Home

Also ok on mobile.
Chrome
Android 16

Would I need to say which trust it is?

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals.
All comes up OK.
PC, Firefox.

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
and
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Both fine:

Brave Browser (Chrome-based)
MacBook Pro
OS 13.7.8 (Ventura)

Stoke-on-Trent

Android
Brave Browser (chrome)

All fine

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust
and
Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Southshields and Gateshead.

All fine.

Safari
Mobile
IOS 18.7.7

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The single sex statement (first link) took a while to load but when I tried again it was fine. Others all fine.

Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
All fine

Macbook air, Monterey 12.7.4
Chrome

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

All fine using Safari, iPad v. 26.3.1.

(Bloody hell, though. “It is important to take into account that immediately post-operatively, or while unconscious for any reason, those trans women who usually wear wigs, are unlikely to wear them in these circumstances, and may be ‘read’ incorrectly as men. Extra care is therefore required so that their privacy and dignity as women are appropriately ensured.”)

dm me if you prefer?

Thanks so much - that is all very reassuring
(except the bit about the wigs maybe - what about the women who wear wigs do they not count?)

@KnottyAuty My response is upthread, but I've DM'd my trust name to you

Dorset County NHS Foundation Trust is very fast using Firefox on Android.

It was mildly frustrating to have to scroll right up to the OP to get the link in order to check. I know that you are moving mountains but you could have repeated the link in your request

I'm still in awe of what you and the team have achieved

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this.
I mean... "read incorrectly as men" are any bald/short haired women ever "read incorrectly as men" of they haven't got a bloody wig on?

If not, I wonder what the difference could possibly be? 🤔

Ah ok - too late for you but here for anyone else:

https://seeninhealth.org/nhs-foi-map/

thanks to all for checking

NHS Highland all ticketyboo.
Chrome on an android phone.