The Darlington Nursing Union has written to Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper warning that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s newly published Code of Practice fails to resolve how female NHS staff will have their workplace rights enforced, and is calling for an urgent meeting to close what it describes as a dangerous gap in guidance.
The Darlington Nursing Union has warned that the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s updated Code of Practice, which came into force today, does not answer the urgent question of how female NHS employees will have their workplace rights enforced. In a letter to Health and Social Care Secretary Yvette Cooper, the union said that while it welcomes the new statutory guidance, the Code applies to services, public functions and associations rather than to employers acting in their capacity as employers. The nurses are now demanding an urgent meeting with the Health Secretary to establish what steps the Government, NHS England and health regulators will take to ensure legally accurate workplace guidance is issued and enforced across every NHS trust.
What the new EHRC Code does and does not cover
The EHRC describes its updated Code as practical statutory guidance explaining how the Equality Act applies to services, public functions and associations. Although it does not create new legal obligations, courts and tribunals may take it into account where relevant to a case. The Code reflects the Supreme Court’s clarification that the terms “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, a ruling handed down in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers in April 2025. It also affirms that people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment remain protected from unlawful discrimination and harassment under the Act, even following that clarification.
However, the Darlington Nursing Union points out that the Code is primarily concerned with organisations providing services or carrying out public functions. While an NHS trust may fall under its scope when delivering healthcare to patients, the Code does not comprehensively govern that same trust’s separate role as an employer, and it does not replace the EHRC’s existing Employment Code of Practice, which governs the relationship between employers and staff.
The union argues this distinction matters significantly for female nurses, who it says require clear guidance not only on the services delivered to patients but on their own rights as employees when using changing rooms, toilets and other workplace facilities. According to the union, the Supreme Court has already clarified the meaning of sex under the Equality Act, and NHS bodies must follow that ruling now, regardless of the continuing gap in updated workplace guidance. The absence of an updated Employment Code, it says, is not a licence for NHS trusts to continue applying policies based on an incorrect interpretation of the law.
Origins of the dispute at Darlington Memorial Hospital
The Darlington Nursing Union was established after female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital raised concerns about being required to share a changing room with a transgender colleague. Rather than having those concerns addressed promptly, sensitively and lawfully, the nurses say they were subjected to treatment that ultimately forced them into Employment Tribunal proceedings.
In January 2026, the nurses secured a tribunal judgment which the union says confirmed that the treatment they experienced was unlawful, and that their dignity and legitimate concerns had not been properly respected. Despite this legal success, the nurses say they continue to be investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) over their decision to speak publicly about their experiences.
The nurses have also said they were abandoned by established trade unions during their dispute. Despite being fee-paying members, they say none of the main unions they approached was prepared to support them in defending single-sex workplace facilities. As a result, they established the Darlington Nursing Union to provide an independent source of representation for nurses and healthcare professionals facing comparable disputes. The union is supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which has been involved in a number of recent legal cases concerning sex-based rights, freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
Twelve questions for the Health Secretary
The Darlington Nursing Union is calling on Yvette Cooper to answer a series of specific questions concerning NHS workplace policy. These include what guidance will govern the rights of NHS employees given that the new Code principally concerns services and public functions; whether the Government or NHS England will instruct trusts to review changing rooms, toilets and other intimate facilities; and how NHS employers will be required to apply the Equality Act 2010 alongside the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
The union is also seeking clarity on whether binding or authoritative national standards will prevent trusts from adopting conflicting policies, when trusts must complete policy reviews and confirm compliance, and which organisation will be responsible for monitoring whether workplace policies meet legal requirements. Further questions concern what consequences will follow where trusts maintain unlawful or legally inaccurate policies, and what role the Care Quality Commission, NHS England and professional regulators will play in oversight.
The union has additionally asked how NHS leaders, human resources personnel and equality, diversity and inclusion teams will receive accurate legal training; what practical measures will prevent disciplinary action, harassment, victimisation or professional detriment against staff who raise legitimate concerns; and how nurses and other regulated professionals will be protected from unjustified referrals or investigations arising from lawful speech about workplace conditions. Finally, the union has asked whether the Government will support the urgent publication of updated, legally accurate employment guidance.
Previous engagement with ministers
The Darlington nurses met former Health Secretary Wes Streeting in October 2024 and maintained correspondence with him throughout their case. Following the tribunal judgment, the union says Streeting recognised the seriousness of their experience and the need for NHS guidance to reflect the law correctly, and that a further meeting was being arranged to discuss the implications of the case and the forthcoming EHRC Code.
The nurses later sought to continue this engagement with James Murray and were due to meet the Department on 16 June. They are now asking Yvette Cooper to honour the commitment previously made by her predecessor. This follows an earlier assurance, made in April 2025 following the For Women Scotland Supreme Court ruling, when Streeting reportedly promised “new rules for the NHS within weeks” — a commitment the union says has not yet materialised.
‘A dangerous gap for women at work’
Bethany Hutchison, a Darlington nurse and President of the Darlington Nursing Union, said the new Code, while welcome, leaves employees exposed. “The EHRC Code of Practice is welcome, but it does not apply to employers acting in their capacity as employers. There therefore remains a dangerous gap between the clarity now being offered to service providers and the position of female employees who need protection in their workplaces,” she said.
Hutchison described the nurses’ own experience as illustrative of the wider problem. “The Darlington nurses know from painful experience what happens when NHS institutions fail to respect the law, the dignity of female staff and legitimate concerns about privacy and single-sex facilities. We raised reasonable concerns but, rather than being listened to and supported, we were forced into a prolonged legal battle to establish rights that should have been protected from the outset,” she said.
She said the Government now faced an unavoidable question: “What equivalent employment guidance will be issued, who will ensure that trusts follow it, and what enforcement action will be taken when they do not?” She added that clear national direction was needed on single-sex facilities, and that “managers, human resources teams and equality departments must be trained to understand and apply the law correctly.”
Hutchison also spoke of the union’s origins, saying established unions had failed to support the nurses. “We were also abandoned by the established trade unions. Despite being fee-paying members, none of the main unions we approached was willing to support us in defending these basic women’s rights. We were ultimately forced to establish the Darlington Nursing Union so that nurses and other healthcare professionals facing similar situations would have somewhere to turn,” she said, calling it “extraordinary that frontline nurses had to create their own trade union simply to obtain meaningful representation on matters of privacy, dignity and lawful single-sex provision.”
She paid tribute to others who had pursued similar cases, naming Sandie Peggie and Jennifer Melle, as well as the Christian Legal Centre, saying they had “shown immense courage, often at considerable personal and professional cost.” However, she argued this could not be treated as an adequate substitute for government action: “This cannot be the Government’s enforcement strategy. It cannot be right that responsibility for upholding the law is left to individual women who must risk their careers, reputations, livelihoods and wellbeing by challenging powerful public institutions. Nurses should not have to become whistleblowers, litigants or trade-union founders simply to secure compliance with the Equality Act and workplace law.”
Hutchison confirmed the union’s earlier contact with ministers, adding: “We are now asking Yvette Cooper to meet us as soon as possible,” and called on the Government to “explain how it will ensure that the law is applied consistently across the NHS, what equivalent workplace guidance will be issued, how compliance will be monitored, and how staff who raise legitimate concerns will be protected.” She concluded: “The Government now has an opportunity to ensure that other women are never put through what we experienced. It must provide national leadership, clear workplace direction and meaningful enforcement, rather than leaving ordinary women to uphold the law one costly case at a time.”
Christian Legal Centre calls for national instructions
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, echoed the union’s concerns, saying the nurses “should never have been forced to risk their careers, reputations and wellbeing to establish rights that should have been recognised from the beginning.” She said that “when they raised reasonable concerns, the institutions that should have protected them failed,” adding: “Established trade unions abandoned them, their employer did not listen, and they were left with no alternative but to pursue legal action. The Christian Legal Centre was privileged to stand alongside them and ensure their voices were heard.”
Williams cautioned against treating the publication of the new Code as the end of the matter. “The Government must not use publication of the new Code to suggest that the work is complete. Unless equivalent and legally accurate employment guidance is issued, backed by national NHS policy and meaningful enforcement, female staff will remain exposed,” she said.
She called for clear instructions to be issued across the health service: “NHS England and every NHS trust must be given clear instructions on workplace changing rooms, toilets and other intimate facilities. Human resources teams and equality, diversity and inclusion departments must receive accurate legal training. Regulators must also be prepared to intervene where institutions disregard the law or punish women for raising legitimate concerns.” She concluded: “The Government cannot outsource the enforcement of women’s workplace rights to a handful of courageous nurses. We support the Darlington Nursing Union’s request for an urgent meeting with the Health Secretary and call for immediate action to close the workplace guidance and enforcement gap.”
