Darlington nurses to be compensated after changing room dispute
Seven Darlington nurses were awarded £187,000 after a tribunal found the trust’s changing-room policy created a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust agreed to pay £187,000 and formally apologised to seven nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital over access to single-sex changing rooms.
It had not adequately considered the nurses’ concerns. It had now developed unisex facilities so that single-sex spaces are used on the basis of biological sex, bringing the proceedings to a close after months of legal wrangling.
The case, Bethany Hutchison & Others v County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, began with eight claimants, but Joanne Bradbury’s claim was stayed, leaving seven claims to be determined. The Newcastle Employment Tribunal heard evidence over a series of sittings in October and November 2025, with deliberations continuing through November and December and into 12 January 2026 before Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney issued a reserved judgment on 16 January 2026.
That judgment found the trust had harassed the nurses and committed indirect sex discrimination by requiring them to share a changing room with a trans woman and by failing to deal properly with complaints raised in August and September 2023 and again on 4 April 2024. The tribunal said the trust’s conduct created a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment. It dismissed the victimisation claims and many allegations that were aimed directly at Rose Henderson’s conduct.
Rose Henderson, an operating theatre practitioner, had used the women’s changing room since she started at the hospital as a student in 2019. The nurses did not begin raising formal complaints until 2023, and the judgment said the trust’s policy allowed transgender staff access to the changing room corresponding to their affirmed gender.
The claimants were represented by Niazi Fetto KC, while the trust was represented by Simon Cheetham KC.
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