NHS chiefs forced to rip up trans guidance

Telegraph

2 days ago

NHS chiefs have been forced to rip up their pro-trans guidance after it was rendered illegal by the Supreme Court ruling.
The NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, has quietly withdrawn guidance telling hospitals that they should allow trans people to use their chosen toilets and changing rooms.
The group told The Telegraph it had taken the guide down from its website because it had become 'dated' since the Supreme Court judgment that the word sex in the Equality Act means biological sex.
Reached in April, the decision means trans women, who were born male, should use men's toilets and changing rooms, contradicting the previous stance of a string of public sector organisations.
The confederation's advice is now being updated in line with the Supreme Court ruling and new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and will be published later.
On Thursday night, women's rights charities demanded that the confederation apologise for the guidance, which they claimed may have led to unfair decisions, such as the case of Darlington nurses who were disciplined for demanding single-sex facilities.
They said that rather than deleting the guidance, the confederation should actively inform all trusts that it was now null and void.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: 'Its guidance encouraged a hostile, humiliating and unsafe environment for NHS workers and patients. It was published with much fanfare but withdrawn by stealth.
'NHS Confederation should now apologise publicly for undermining women's rights and the culture of care. It should also undertake to contact all NHS trusts, telling them that its guidance was flawed and that policies based on it should now be torn up.'
A growing number of public bodies are changing their guidance in light of the Supreme Court judgment, including the Football Association, which has said trans women would be banned from women's sport.
However, neither NHS England nor the NHS Confederation have put forward new guidance.
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has said he wants the new guidance in place by the summer.
The confederation's now-withdrawn guidance stated: 'In all types of workplaces, trans and non-binary people should be supported to use the bathrooms they feel most comfortable using. At no time is it appropriate to force staff to use the toilet associated with their assigned sex at birth against their will.'
It also tells management, senior healthcare leaders and human resources directors to take a 'zero-tolerance attitude' to transphobia.
The confederation also promoted individual trusts' guidance, such as Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, which said: 'You are entitled to use single-sex facilities in accordance with your gender identity.
'For non-binary people, this may mean using gender-neutral or accessible facilities, or using a combination of different facilities. A non-binary person can choose to use facilities they are most comfortable using, if gender neutral facilities are not present.'
'Will not change our commitment'
A spokesman for the confederation said: 'We have withdrawn our guide from our website as elements of it were dated following the ruling of the Supreme Court in April and interim guidance from the EHRC.
'Our intention remains to provide our members with information that helps them best support their staff and patients, and so we will update and reinstate our guide as soon as the EHRC has updated its Code of Practice, which will need to be approved by the UK Government, and when NHS England has then updated its guidance for what the changes mean for NHS organisations.
'The withdrawal of our guide does not change our explicit commitment to support our members to reduce the unacceptably high levels of bullying, abuse and discrimination at work that trans and non-binary staff and patients face.'
The spokesman said the guidance had not been taken down immediately after the Supreme Court ruling because the initial response had been to keep it on the NHS Confederation website with acknowledgements that certain elements of it had become dated.
It was later decided that to avoid the risk of any confusion, it was best to remove the guide in its entirety and update it later.
Ms Forstater said: 'NHS Confederation's now-withdrawn guidance on trans issues is among the worst we have seen. Not only did it encourage hospitals to break the law on workplace facilities, it directed NHS managers to regard anyone who correctly cited the law as a 'transphobe' and to treat them with a 'zero tolerance' approach.
'This is the approach that led to NHS staff such as Sandie Peggie and the Darlington nurses being disciplined in their workplaces simply for asserting their right to safety, dignity and privacy in single-sex facilities.
'Hospitals should always have been places where staff understood that sex matters. But NHS Confederation has been dragging its feet since the Supreme Court judgment was handed down.'