NHS England report characterises gay and transgender people as having disability or long-term condition

NHS England’s chief people officer has said she regrets what was a ‘drafting error’

A major NHS workforce plan has sparked outrage after it appeared to characterise gay, lesbian and transgender people as being similar to people with a disability or long-term condition.

The NHS People Plan was published last week and set out a vision for improving working conditions for NHS staff in England to boost recruitment and tackle long-standing shortages of staff.

But senior health bosses as well as doctors and nurses have criticised a passage in the document describing the difficulties for LGBT+ NHS staff as the same as those who were disabled.

In a section about the NHS workforce disability equality standard, which is a set of metrics designed to measure how the NHS treats disabled staff, the People Plan document, which is still available online, said: “The workforce disability equality standard has begun to shine a light on the difficulties that colleagues with disabilities and long-term health conditions face.”

It then added: “But there remain challenges. For example, we know that the majority of staff who identify as LGBTQ+ do not feel confident enough to report their sexuality on their employment record.”

This was the only reference to LGBT+ staff in the document and the unexplained link to those with a disability prompted criticism from a number of senior NHS figures.

NHS England has now changed the document online, inserting a paragraph break and adding: “Other staff groups also face significant challenges” before the sentence about LGBT+ workers.

Dame Jackie Daniel, who runs Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Trust, said on Twitter she “had to do a double take”, adding the passage was “not acceptable”.

David Melia, the chief nurse at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, said the passage was “absolutely shameful” adding: “I’m really curious to hear how this has gone through the proof reading and editing process. It must be deliberate.”

Steve Russell, chief executive of Harrogate and District Foundation Trust, said while he supported the focus on inclusion and marginalised groups, “surprised is the politest word I can find to explain the NHS People Plan suggesting (even accidentally) that being LGBT+ is a disability or long-term condition”.

He later added: “Despite the support of my parents I found it hard coming out in 1998 ... 22 years later seeing this reminds me why, and sadly one might have thought things would have moved on.

“Problem is that it will have been read by many before being published and was at best unnoticed ... which says something in itself.”

Andrew Corbett-Nolan, chief executive of the Good Governance Institute, added: “What an unpleasant Freudian slip in the drafting. Awful. The underlying and constructive point they are making, though, regarding confidence and the employment record is just shocking.”

In response to the criticism Prerana Issar, NHS England’s chief people officer, said: “Unfortunately there was a drafting error which has now been corrected and I regret any upset or misunderstanding.”