NHS Trust Tells Trans Staff They Can Continue Using Women’s Toilets

Female staff say they feel unable to raise concerns after trust confirms “no immediate changes” despite new EHRC code on single-sex spaces.

An NHS trust has told employees that transgender staff can continue using women’s toilets, even after new national guidance on single-sex spaces came into force this week.

Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) informed staff on Wednesday that its policies and practices would not change for now, as it waits for further direction from NHS England.

Under the trust’s existing Trans Inclusion and Single Sex Accommodation policies, patients can be placed in wards and other single-sex facilities according to their gender identity rather than their biological sex. Staff members are likewise permitted to use toilets and showers that match their gender identity rather than their sex.

The revised code from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) took effect on Wednesday, more than a year after the Supreme Court ruled that the term “sex” in equality law refers to biological sex, not gender identity. The code states that single-sex services should be organised around biological sex, with transgender people expected to use facilities matching their biological sex or separate, mixed-sex alternatives instead.

In a message sent to staff this week, MPFT said it recognised the period could be “difficult and anxiety-provoking” for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse colleagues, patients and communities, and reassured them of its continued commitment to being an inclusive organisation.

Several female employees told The Telegraph they were unhappy that the policies had not been revised. One said the trust’s message named a number of groups it stood behind but made no mention of women or of those who believe biological sex matters, adding that she did not feel it was safe to raise the issue at work given that senior leaders had signed the email.

Separately, it has emerged that local councils have approved more than £50 million worth of leisure centre developments featuring mixed-sex changing rooms since the Supreme Court’s ruling. According to The Times, at least three councils gave planning approval to unisex or mixed-sex changing facilities after the judgment was handed down.

The EHRC’s statutory guidance, issued this week, warns that offering only mixed-sex changing facilities, with no single-sex or separate option, risks amounting to direct or indirect discrimination against women, and could expose providers to claims of unlawful harassment.

Staff at MPFT said they felt intimidated about raising the subject openly. Terry Stock, a public governor at the trust, said he was disappointed, though not surprised, that its policies had not been updated. Records seen by The Telegraph show Mr Stock has repeatedly raised concerns since taking up the governor role in late 2024, warning that the existing approach put vulnerable female patients and staff at risk.

After previously voicing concerns about the effects of transgender activism on women’s rights, Mr Stock said colleagues had told him his comments left them feeling “hurt or excluded”, and that he was discouraged from attending an LGBT+ staff event on the grounds that it was not an appropriate setting to question trans identity or debate trans rights.

The trust agreed in April 2025 to review whether its policies complied with the law, but a freedom of information request confirmed in June that no changes had been made. Mr Stock said the trust appeared to be “ideologically captured”, accusing senior officials of repeatedly failing to resolve the conflict between its policies and the law, and of showing “complete disregard” for the privacy, dignity and safety of women.

The disagreement comes against a backdrop of continued uncertainty across the NHS about how it will respond to the new code. NHS England has not set out a timetable for revising national guidance that currently allows transgender patients to be placed in wards according to gender identity, saying only that updated policies will follow “shortly”.

A spokesman for the EHRC said health bodies and employers were expected to comply with the law and to update their policies where necessary, adding that the regulator would monitor compliance and take enforcement action where it judged this proportionate and necessary.

In response, an MPFT spokesman said the trust accepted the Supreme Court’s judgment and was rolling out the EHRC code through a structured implementation programme. A small number of policies remained under formal review, informed by external legal advice and by NHS England guidance as it becomes available, the spokesman said, adding that the trust also had to balance its wider legal duties to safeguard safety, privacy, dignity and human rights, including for vulnerable patients.

Worth reading in full: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/08/midlands-partnership-nhs-trust-trans-staff-womens-toilets/