All gender-specific language is set to be removed from a Nottinghamshire NHS trust’s documentation.
Nottingham Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is to make the updates to its constitution, with more than 65 incidences of the words “he” and “she” edited to read “they” as part of the proposed changes.
The move is being made in order to bring the constitution level and compliant with the Equality Act 2010.
Director of Governance Keith Wilshere brought the plan before the trust’s board of directors at a meeting on March 26.
A report, explaining the updates, said: “The constitution has been drafted to be compliant with all the present legislation including the Equality Act 2010, all gender specific references have been removed.”
Nottinghamshire Healthcare’s constitution sets out how the trust is run and is required by law according to the NHS Act 2006.
Sentences changed include descriptions of how working employees can eligibly become a member of the council, rules around elections of governors and rules around telephone and internet voting.
Some parts of the document previously only used male pronouns to describe individuals.
The old version of 8.1 stated: “An individual who is employed by the Trust under a contract of employment with the Trust may become or continue as a Member of the Trust provided:
“He is employed by the Trust under a contract of employment which has no fixed term or has a fixed term of at least 12 months; or,
“He is continuously employed by the Trust under a contract of employment for at least 12 month.”
The new sentences replace “he is” with “they are”.
Other parts of the document previously used “he or she”.
On the validity of a standing candidate, paragraph 14.3 previously said: “The returning officer is to examine each nomination form as soon as is practicable after he or she has received it and decide whether the candidate has been validly nominated.”
It has been changed in order to say “they” instead of “he or she”.
Mr Wilshere told the board: “The audit and risk committee have looked at (the constitution) in a great deal of detail, I can give you an absolute guarantee on that.”
The board unanimously approved the proposals, meaning the plan will now go before the trust’s council of governors on Tuesday, April 28.
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said: “It’s good governance practice to regularly review and update all elements of the Trust Constitution so they are in line with current language and practice and reflect any legislative or other significant changes since the previous review.
“This recent review of the constitution has no additional cost attached to it.”
