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Universities did not protect gender-critical academics from harassment

Universities did not protect gender-critical academics from harassment

The report – on barriers to research on sex and gender identity – has called for staff and students who take part in freedom-restricting harassment to face 'consequences commensurate with the seriousness of the offence'.
Universities should critically review their policies and practices to remove 'partisan policies and messaging on questions of sex and gender', it added.
The report follows a review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, which was commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology under the former Conservative government in February 2024.
It came after high-profile cases of academics who faced harassment relating to their gender-critical views garnered media attention in recent years.
In March, the Office for Students (OfS) issued a fine of £585,000 to the University of Sussex for failing to uphold freedom of speech.
The watchdog's investigation into the university was launched after protests called for the dismissal of academic Professor Kathleen Stock in 2021 over her views on gender identity.
The OfS concluded the university's trans and non-binary equality policy statement had 'a chilling effect' of possible self-censorship of students and staff on campus.
In January last year, an academic won an unfair dismissal claim against the Open University (OU) after she was discriminated against and harassed because of her gender-critical beliefs.
An employment tribunal found Professor Jo Phoenix – who was compared with 'a racist uncle at the Christmas table' – was forced to quit her job because of a 'hostile environment' created by colleagues and 'insufficient protection' from the university.
Prof Sullivan's latest report cites evidence from a number of academics – including Prof Stock and Prof Phoenix – who have challenged the theory that sex is always less important than gender identity.
Protests called for the dismissal of Professor Kathleen Stock in 2021 over her views on gender identity (Oxford Union Society/PA)
It said: 'Several respondents to this review have suffered extreme personal consequences, both to their careers and to their physical and mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and extensive sick leave as a result of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
'The failure to adequately support and defend these individuals is a stain on the higher education sector.'
The review concluded: 'Campaigns of harassment have had devastating consequences for individuals and created a wider chilling effect for academia and the research community.
'University policies have often adhered to the tenets of gender-identity theory, thus embedding discriminatory practices.
'In cases where individual academics or students have tried to resolve issues using internal mechanisms, these processes have often proven inadequate.
'Going to an employment tribunal is an exceptionally onerous and potentially career-ending step.
'Statements from higher education management representatives and bodies have typically downplayed and denied problems with academic freedom, dismissing or minimising concerns as 'media noise' or 'culture wars'.'
Report author Prof Sullivan, from the UCL Social Research Institute, said: 'The evidence I have collected raises stark concerns about barriers to academic freedom in UK universities.
'Researchers investigating vital issues have been subjected to sustained campaigns of intimidation simply for acknowledging the biological and social importance of sex.
'Excessive and cumbersome bureaucratic processes have exacerbated the problem by providing levers for activists to exert influence.
'Academic institutions need to examine their policies and processes carefully to avoid these unintended outcomes.'
Among a series of recommendations, the report said senior leaders in higher education should acknowledge the reality of bullying and harassment by internal activists and 'take on board the lessons of the Phoenix judgment'.
Prof Phoenix, who resigned from the OU in December 2021 after she was harassed for her gender-critical views, said: 'I just suggested that there was a different evidence base from which we could make assessments about the potential harms of placing males who identify as trans in female prisons and I set up a research network. That was all I ever did.
'But it was enough for the activist academics to stop my criminological research career in its track and to do so permanently.'
A Government spokeswoman said: 'We are taking strong action to protect academic freedom and free speech, which are fundamental to our world-leading universities.
'This includes introducing new duties on universities to ensure they are robust in promoting and protecting free speech on campus.
'It also comes alongside the firm steps the Office for Students is already taking, through fines and new guidance, to ensure universities remain beacons of academic freedom.'
A Universities UK (UUK) spokeswoman said: 'We agree that universities must protect and defend academic freedom and freedom of speech.
'They are bound to do so by law and, in England, there is a new regulatory approach under the Freedom of Speech Act which is about to come into force.
'These are complex issues. In practice universities are bound by law to protect the free speech of individuals who have very different views on contentious topics.
'They are required both to allow and facilitate protest, and to prevent that protest creating an intimidatory or chilling environment on campus or from preventing staff and students from pursuing their work and studies.
'We will carefully consider this report as part of our work in supporting universities as they navigate these difficult issues.'
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Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike
Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike

South Wales Argus

time18 hours ago

  • South Wales Argus

Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike

A five-day walkout by resident doctors in England is under way, with members of the British Medical Association (BMA) manning picket lines across the country. The Health Secretary condemned the strike as 'reckless' and said the Government would not allow the BMA to 'hold the country to ransom'. Asked about the risk of patient harm during a visit to NHS England HQ in London, he told the PA news agency on Friday: 'I'm really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff have prepared and mobilised to minimise the disruption and minimise the risk of harm to patients. 'We've seen an extraordinary response, including people cancelling their leave, turning up for work, and resident doctors themselves ignoring their union to be there for patients. I'm extremely grateful to all of them. 'What I can't do today is guarantee that there will be no disruption and that there is no risk of harm to patients. 'We are doing everything we can to minimise it, but the risk is there, and that is why the BMA's action is so irresponsible. 'They had a 28.9% pay award from this Government in our first year, there was also an offer to work with them on other things that affect resident doctors – working lives – and that's why I think this is such reckless action. 'This Government will not allow the BMA to hold the country to ransom, and we will continue to make progress on NHS improvement, as we've done in our first year.' Asked about next steps and the continued threat of doctor strikes, given the BMA has a six-month mandate to call more industrial action, Mr Streeting said: 'When the BMA asks, 'what's the difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government?', I would say a 28.9% pay rise and a willingness to work together to improve the working conditions and lives of doctors. Resident doctors are beginning a five-day strike (James Manning/PA) 'That is why the public and other NHS staff cannot understand why the BMA have chosen to embark on this totally unnecessary, reckless strike action.' It comes as NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey told broadcasters on Friday about his different approach to managing the strike, including keeping as much pre-planned care going as possible rather than just focusing on emergency care. 'So the difference this time is the NHS has put a huge effort in to try and get back on its feet,' he said at NHS England HQ in London. 'As everybody's been aware, we've had a really tough period, and you really feel colleagues on the ground, local clinical leaders, clinical operational colleagues etc, really pulling together to try and get the NHS back on its feet. 'And we also learned from the last few rounds of industrial action that harm to patients and disruption to patients was much broader than the original definitions. So we've decided to say it needs to be a broader definition. We can't just focus on that small subset of care. 'Colleagues in the service have tried to keep as much going as humanly possible as well, and the early signs are that that's been achieved so far, but it is early doors. 'In the end, capacity will have to be constrained by the numbers of people we've actually got who do just turn up for work, and what that means in terms of safe provision, because the thing that colleagues won't compromise is safety in the actual delivery. But it does look like people have really heard that. 'They're really pulling together to maximise the range of services possible.' Asked about further strikes, he said: 'It is possible. I would hope not. I would hope after this, we'll be able to get people in a room and resolve the issue. 'But if we are in this with a six month mandate, we could be doing this once a month for the next next six months, but we've got to organise ourselves accordingly.' The Prime Minister has said the strikes will 'cause real damage' (PA) Asked why he was not willing to bump pay from what the BMA calculates is £18 an hour to £22 per hour, Mr Streeting told broadcasters: 'I think the public can see, and other NHS staff can see the willingness this Government showed from day one coming into office to try and deal with what had been over a decade of failure on behalf of the previous government, working with resident doctors to improve their pay and to improve the NHS. 'That's why resident doctors had a 28.9% pay award, and that's why the disruption they are inflicting on the country is so unnecessary and so irresponsible.' Mr Streeting said 'we know there'll be real challenges over the next five days'. He added that patients, particularly those who end up waiting a long time for care due to strikes, 'do come to harm, and however much the BMA try and sugarcoat it, what they are fundamentally doing today is forgetting the three words that should be at the forefront of every doctor's minds every day, which is, 'do no harm'.' On whether strikes are going to become the 'new normal', he added: 'As I've said before, the BMA have had a 28.9% pay award from this Government, and we were willing to go further to help on some of the working conditions that doctors face. 'That offer of joint working, that partnership approach, that hasn't gone away, but it does take two to tango, and I hope that the BMA will reflect very carefully on the disruption they are inflicting on patients, the pressures they're putting on their colleagues, and the circumstances in which they are doing so – a 28.9% pay rise and a government that was willing to work with them. 'Those are not grounds for strike action.' It comes after Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. He added: 'Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage… 'These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery.' The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has fallen by around 20% since 2008, and is pushing for full 'pay restoration'. The union took out national newspaper adverts on Friday, saying it wanted to 'make clear that while a newly qualified doctor's assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour'. BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the union had been expecting more pay for doctors. He said: 'Where we were last year when we started the pay campaign, we were down a third on our pay compared to 2008. 'So you've got last year's pay offer which did indeed move us towards (pay restoration), but Wes Streeting himself said that pay restoration is a journey, not an event, implying that there would be further pay restoration to come, and we were expecting our pay to be restored in full – that's our campaign's goal. 'We got part way there, but then that came to a halt this year – we've only had an offer that brings us up, just to catch up with inflation.' Asked what it would take for doctors to go back to work, he said the BMA needed to see 'a clear, guaranteed pathway' to pay restoration. He added that 'it's very disappointing to see a Labour Government taking such a hard line against trade unions'. Elsewhere, the Nottingham City Hospital – where Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chairwoman of the BMA's resident doctors' committee works in paediatrics – reached an agreement with the BMA to exempt one doctor from the strike to work on the neonatal intensive care unit. Speaking from a London picket line, Dr Ryan told The Times: 'I do know that we've granted a derogation already. It is actually at my work, with the babies on one of the neonatal units I work on. That is because it is an intensive care unit for babies. 'We don't have enough senior staff to cover the doctors that aren't there, the residents. And actually, it is important to us that those very sick babies get a lot of care. So we have granted a resident doctor to go back.' A derogation was agreed for one doctor in the emergency department and another doctor in the ISGM at the Northern General Hospital. 'We advise resident doctors to return to work if contacted by the Trust to staff these shifts tonight,' the BMA said in an X post on Friday evening. The BMA said it had also agreed a derogation for two anaesthetists to work at University Hospital Lewisham on Saturday to ensure patient safety. Louise Stead, group chief executive of Ashford and St Peter's and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trusts, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that around 500 appointments were being rescheduled 'but we are continuing to do about 96% of the work we've had planned'.

Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike
Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike

Leader Live

timea day ago

  • Leader Live

Streeting: We are doing everything we can to minimise patient harm during strike

A five-day walkout by resident doctors in England is under way, with members of the British Medical Association (BMA) manning picket lines across the country. The Health Secretary condemned the strike as 'reckless' and said the Government would not allow the BMA to 'hold the country to ransom'. Asked about the risk of patient harm during a visit to NHS England HQ in London, he told the PA news agency on Friday: 'I'm really proud of the way that NHS leaders and frontline staff have prepared and mobilised to minimise the disruption and minimise the risk of harm to patients. 'We've seen an extraordinary response, including people cancelling their leave, turning up for work, and resident doctors themselves ignoring their union to be there for patients. I'm extremely grateful to all of them. 'What I can't do today is guarantee that there will be no disruption and that there is no risk of harm to patients. 'We are doing everything we can to minimise it, but the risk is there, and that is why the BMA's action is so irresponsible. 'They had a 28.9% pay award from this Government in our first year, there was also an offer to work with them on other things that affect resident doctors – working lives – and that's why I think this is such reckless action. 'This Government will not allow the BMA to hold the country to ransom, and we will continue to make progress on NHS improvement, as we've done in our first year.' Asked about next steps and the continued threat of doctor strikes, given the BMA has a six-month mandate to call more industrial action, Mr Streeting said: 'When the BMA asks, 'what's the difference between a Labour government and a Conservative government?', I would say a 28.9% pay rise and a willingness to work together to improve the working conditions and lives of doctors. 'That is why the public and other NHS staff cannot understand why the BMA have chosen to embark on this totally unnecessary, reckless strike action.' It comes as NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey told broadcasters on Friday about his different approach to managing the strike, including keeping as much pre-planned care going as possible rather than just focusing on emergency care. 'So the difference this time is the NHS has put a huge effort in to try and get back on its feet,' he said at NHS England HQ in London. 'As everybody's been aware, we've had a really tough period, and you really feel colleagues on the ground, local clinical leaders, clinical operational colleagues etc, really pulling together to try and get the NHS back on its feet. 'And we also learned from the last few rounds of industrial action that harm to patients and disruption to patients was much broader than the original definitions. So we've decided to say it needs to be a broader definition. We can't just focus on that small subset of care. 'Colleagues in the service have tried to keep as much going as humanly possible as well, and the early signs are that that's been achieved so far, but it is early doors. 'In the end, capacity will have to be constrained by the numbers of people we've actually got who do just turn up for work, and what that means in terms of safe provision, because the thing that colleagues won't compromise is safety in the actual delivery. But it does look like people have really heard that. 'They're really pulling together to maximise the range of services possible.' Asked about further strikes, he said: 'It is possible. I would hope not. I would hope after this, we'll be able to get people in a room and resolve the issue. 'But if we are in this with a six month mandate, we could be doing this once a month for the next next six months, but we've got to organise ourselves accordingly.' Asked why he was not willing to bump pay from what the BMA calculates is £18 an hour to £22 per hour, Mr Streeting told broadcasters: 'I think the public can see, and other NHS staff can see the willingness this Government showed from day one coming into office to try and deal with what had been over a decade of failure on behalf of the previous government, working with resident doctors to improve their pay and to improve the NHS. 'That's why resident doctors had a 28.9% pay award, and that's why the disruption they are inflicting on the country is so unnecessary and so irresponsible.' Mr Streeting said 'we know there'll be real challenges over the next five days'. He added that patients, particularly those who end up waiting a long time for care due to strikes, 'do come to harm, and however much the BMA try and sugarcoat it, what they are fundamentally doing today is forgetting the three words that should be at the forefront of every doctor's minds every day, which is, 'do no harm'.' On whether strikes are going to become the 'new normal', he added: 'As I've said before, the BMA have had a 28.9% pay award from this Government, and we were willing to go further to help on some of the working conditions that doctors face. 'That offer of joint working, that partnership approach, that hasn't gone away, but it does take two to tango, and I hope that the BMA will reflect very carefully on the disruption they are inflicting on patients, the pressures they're putting on their colleagues, and the circumstances in which they are doing so – a 28.9% pay rise and a government that was willing to work with them. 'Those are not grounds for strike action.' It comes after Sir Keir Starmer made a last-minute appeal to resident doctors, saying the strikes would 'cause real damage'. He added: 'Most people do not support these strikes. They know they will cause real damage… 'These strikes threaten to turn back the clock on progress we have made in rebuilding the NHS over the last year, choking off the recovery.' The BMA has argued that real-terms pay has fallen by around 20% since 2008, and is pushing for full 'pay restoration'. The union took out national newspaper adverts on Friday, saying it wanted to 'make clear that while a newly qualified doctor's assistant is taking home over £24 per hour, a newly qualified doctor with years of medical school experience is on just £18.62 per hour'. BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the union had been expecting more pay for doctors. He said: 'Where we were last year when we started the pay campaign, we were down a third on our pay compared to 2008. 'So you've got last year's pay offer which did indeed move us towards (pay restoration), but Wes Streeting himself said that pay restoration is a journey, not an event, implying that there would be further pay restoration to come, and we were expecting our pay to be restored in full – that's our campaign's goal. 'We got part way there, but then that came to a halt this year – we've only had an offer that brings us up, just to catch up with inflation.' Asked what it would take for doctors to go back to work, he said the BMA needed to see 'a clear, guaranteed pathway' to pay restoration. He added that 'it's very disappointing to see a Labour Government taking such a hard line against trade unions'. Elsewhere, the Nottingham City Hospital – where Dr Melissa Ryan, co-chairwoman of the BMA's resident doctors' committee works in paediatrics – reached an agreement with the BMA to exempt one doctor from the strike to work on the neonatal intensive care unit. Speaking from a London picket line, Dr Ryan told The Times: 'I do know that we've granted a derogation already. It is actually at my work, with the babies on one of the neonatal units I work on. That is because it is an intensive care unit for babies. 'We don't have enough senior staff to cover the doctors that aren't there, the residents. And actually, it is important to us that those very sick babies get a lot of care. So we have granted a resident doctor to go back.' The BMA said it had also agreed a derogation for two anaesthetists to work at University Hospital Lewisham on Saturday to ensure patient safety. Louise Stead, group chief executive of Ashford and St Peter's and Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trusts, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that around 500 appointments were being rescheduled 'but we are continuing to do about 96% of the work we've had planned'.

Surrey County Council heading to a financial 'cliff's edge'
Surrey County Council heading to a financial 'cliff's edge'

BBC News

timea day ago

  • BBC News

Surrey County Council heading to a financial 'cliff's edge'

A council in Surrey could be pushed to the brink of financial crisis if government reforms go ahead, aimed at evening out local authority funding, its leader has Oliver said Surrey County Council could be heading towards a "cliff edge" under proposals which could dramatically reduce its government is looking at scrapping the current council tax funding model in favour of a national 100% "equaliser" system where each local authority gets the same amount of council leader Mr Oliver's warning came during a cabinet meeting, where he suggested the government's Fair Funding Review would hit Surrey harder than most councils due to its higher council tax base. Mr Oliver said: "There is an expectation we will look to our residents to fill that gap. "That gap won't be filled- can't be filled- even if we were to increase council tax by 5%."Currently, Surrey has a high council tax base, meaning it has more band H houses, paying at least £3,692.70 in 2025, compared to other parts of the funding reforms under consideration could flatten out this advantage by reallocating resources away from wealthier counties like Surrey and towards lower-income authorities, according to Local Democracy Reporting Oliver said: "It's absolutely essential that we drive efficiencies wherever possible."A government statement on the Fair Funding Review said: "Our reforms will take into account the different needs and costs faced by communities across the country, including adjusting for the costs of remoteness faced by rural communities, and the ability of individual local authorities to raise council tax, while also resetting business rates income."It will update the crucial formulae used to calculate funding allocations, which are a decade out of date."

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