Department of Health equality guides

To support NHS organisations with fulfilling their equality responsibilities, the Department of Health (DH) is publishing four equality guides. They cover the current legislative requirements for trusts as employers and service providers on age, religion or belief, sexual orientation and trans gender. This page summarises the key points for employers, starting with the first guide on trans gender.

We will continue to update these pages as soon as the remaining guides are published.

For further information on current requirements for the NHS, see our web pages on the diversity strands and our Navigating Equality and Diversity document, which summarises the main equality and diversity guidance and key actions for trusts

Background on the guides

The DH has developed the guidance with input from NHS Employers and other expert groups. The four guides support trusts when reviewing their equality and diversity strategies, schemes, policies and procedures, and provide:

• a comprehensive summary of the current legislative requirements and the rationale behind them
• implications for the NHS as an employer and service provider
• a range of recommendations and practical suggestions on how NHS organisations should take this agenda forward
• examples of good practice in NHS trusts
• planning tools, templates and worksheets

Trusts should read the new guides in conjunction with existing DH guidance on human rights, gender and disability.

Key points - DH trans gender guide

This guide, titled Trans - a practical guide for the NHS, gives trusts an understanding of the needs of trans people, to ensure they are cared for equally within the NHS and treated equally in the NHS as a workplace.

NHS organisations, as public authorities, must comply with the gender equality duty, which means they must factor the needs of transsexual people into the development of gender equality schemes and be proactive in meeting their needs.

The implications for the NHS can be categorised as follows:

• Awareness raising - NHS staff are likely to encounter relatively few trans people or their relatives so there is a need to ensure that those staff (including GPs and GP practice staff) are advised on how to address people appropriately, understand their sensitivities and fears, and handle records appropriately
• Confidentiality - privacy and confidentiality are important for everyone. Trans people often have additional concerns about how they will be perceived, treated and recorded by the NHS. Staff need to be aware of the importance of not disclosing personal information unnecessarily, maintaining records correctly and gaining consent where required.
• Consultation and promotion - NHS organisations need to ensure that trans people (and their representative organisations) are included in consultation exercises and considered in public health campaigns.
• Equality schemes - NHS organisations should review their gender equality or Single Equality Schemes and check that they have fully involved trans people and taken account of trans issues as outlined in the guidance.