Following a three-year legal battle waged by nurses in Darlington, England, the National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust for County Durham and Darlington has finally changed its staff changing-room policy.
“In accordance with [the] U.K. Supreme Court ruling (2025), staff must use changing spaces according to their biological sex,” the new policy states. “Alternative unisex changing spaces are provided for staff who choose not to use an alternative facility.”
What’s the backstory?
In 2023, 26 female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital signed a letter raising concerns about having to undress in the presence of a biological male colleague who went by the name “Rose.” They were told that the male colleague could continue to use the female changing room, and if they didn’t like it, they would need to find somewhere else to change clothes.
What’s more, the nurses all received counter-grievance letters accusing them of discrimination and harassment, and warning that disciplinary action might follow. The nurses said investigation meetings that followed were hostile and intimidating.
Seven of the nurses filed a lawsuit against the Trust, supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Over the next three years, the Trust reportedly spent £603,000 in legal costs to defend its policy, maintaining its position even after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that the words woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
What did the courts say?
In January 2026 an employment tribunal heard evidence that “Rose” had stared at the women and had made inappropriate comments about their bodies. The tribunal found that requiring them to share a changing room with a biological male had violated their dignity and created a “hostile, humiliating and degrading environment.” It added that the Trust had failed to take their concerns seriously or properly assess the impact of its policy on women.
In June, the Trust paid £187,000 in damages to the seven nurses. It also sent letters of apology to each of them, stating, “We recognize that we have a responsibility to provide a safe, respectful and inclusive working environment for everyone, and the Tribunal’s findings make clear that we did not get this right for you, for which the Trust expresses its sincere apologies.”
Still, it was not until October that the Trust officially changed its policy.
In a press release, Christian Legal Centre Chief Executive Andrea Williams said: “The Trust’s new policy is a complete vindication of the Darlington nurses and everything they have fought for. …
“Yet this elementary and lawful solution came only after years of institutional intransigence. The Trust ignored the women, disregarded internal warnings, pursued them through hostile processes and spent vast sums of public money defending a policy that exposed female staff to discrimination and harassment.
“The nurses were portrayed as the problem when the real problem was a policy that erased their rights. Their courage has now forced one of the country’s largest NHS trusts to recognize biological reality and protect single-sex spaces in practice.”
