Christian Concern reports: The Darlington Nurses have secured substantial damages from County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, following their landmark Employment Tribunal victory in January 2026. The case, brought by seven nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital, Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Karen Danson, Tracy Hooper, Annice Grundy, Carly Hoy and Jane Peveller, was supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which has provided the nurses with legal, media and pastoral support from the beginning of their ordeal. The case has become one of the most significant legal challenges in recent years concerning the freedom of female staff to access single-sex spaces in the workplace, with the nurses being compared to the Ford Dagenham workers and being dubbed ‘The Angels of the North.’
In January, Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney, ruled that the policy, which had been in place at the Trust for years allowing men who identify as women to access the female staff changing room, had amounted to unlawful discrimination.
Following extensive and at times deeply protracted negotiations, The Trust has now paid out £187,000 in damages to the nurses, which does not include legal costs, which are still to be decided at a further hearing.
This figure also does not include the Trust’s own legal costs of £603,000, and counting, spent on defending its position of allowing men into female changing rooms.
Last week the Care Quality Commission released a report which found the Trust is ‘unsafe’ and has a ‘blame culture’ and is ‘badly led.’
