Hospital's trans policy inquiry 'failed' nurses

Eight nurses have taken legal action over the trust's changing room policy

A hospital's investigation into complaints raised by nurses over a trans colleague using a female-only changing room "utterly failed" to address their central concerns, an employment tribunal has been told.

Eight nurses have raised a claim over the use of changing rooms at Darlington Memorial Hospital by Rose Henderson, a biological male who identifies as a woman.

An investigation due to last one month ended up taking 11 and did not review the trust's Transitioning in the Workplace policy, the nurses' lawyer Niazi Fetto KC said.

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust's human resources head Andrew Thacker said the policy was not within the parameters he set for the investigation.

The tribunal, sitting in Newcastle, heard 26 women connected to the hospital's day surgery unit signed a letter in March 2024 complaining to bosses about Rose's use of the women's changing room.

The trust's policy allowed a person who was transitioning and identified as a different gender to use the single-sex space that aligned with their preference, the tribunal heard.

Concerns were first raised in September 2023 but trust bosses did not commission a formal investigation under its own resolution procedures until the following May, by which time eight of the nurses had started employment tribunal proceedings.

The nurses work at Darlington Memorial Hospital

Mr Thacker said there was an "informal" stage of managers trying to address the issues but, when it became clear that would not work, the formal probe by an external investigating officer was launched.

He said he set the terms of that investigation without speaking to the nurses who had made the complaints, who had declined to take part in the resolution procedure.

The human resources boss said there was a "whole heap of confusion" about who the leader of the claimants' group was and therefore the investigator would need to speak to all 26 people who signed the letter.

He said he initially requested the investigation be concluded within a month, but it was soon realised the case was not "straightforward", with some 45 people needing to be interviewed in the end.

The investigation produced its final report in April 2025 which was one of the reasons the employment tribunal, which had been scheduled to begin in June, was pushed back to October.

The tribunal was told the report concluded Rose had been using the changing room since starting to work at the hospital in 2019, which was in compliance with the trust's policy.

But it did not review the policy itself which Mr Fetto said meant it had "utterly failed to deal with the central complaint" raised by the nurses.

Mr Thacker said the parameters he set were "not whether or not the policy was correct" but were around the complaints raised, which he felt the investigation met.

Policy withdrawn

Mr Fetto asked Mr Thacker if he had considered, as had been suggested by a trust governor, getting a health and safety assessment of the policy, but he replied: "No."

Mr Thacker also said he did not notify the investigator about regulations around the requirement for single-sex changing rooms, telling the tribunal it did not cross his mind and this case was one of a "caseload" of resolution procedures going on at the time.

He said there was a "strong suggestion" that every action he took was a "deliberate attempt to cause harassment" to the nurses, but he could "absolutely, categorically guarantee" that was never his intention.

He said his aim had always been to ensure the trust followed the appropriate policies.

Mr Thacker sent a letter to some of the nurses, which they have called intimidating, in which he said that while they had a right to freedom of speech, making serious allegations against colleagues in the media was inappropriate and could lead to disciplinary action.

He said he was trying, in the "best way possible", to alert them that they could be in breach of trust policies - something he would "do for anybody".

The tribunal heard the policy had since been withdrawn following the Supreme Court's ruling in April that a woman was defined by biological sex under equalities law.

Mr Thacker said there was no national guidance on the issue and the trust would wait for such to be created before a new policy could be produced.

The tribunal continues.