County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has paid £187,000 in damages to seven nurses after an employment tribunal ruled the trust harassed them by requiring them to share a changing room with a transgender colleague.

The tribunal found the trust created a hostile environment for nurses who objected to Rose Henderson, who was born male and identifies as a woman, using the single-sex changing facilities. The ruling centred on whether the trust had adequately balanced its duty of care to Henderson against the rights of female staff to single-sex spaces. Judges found it had not. The case was brought with the support of Christian Concern, a legal advocacy organisation that has pursued a number of cases involving single-sex spaces and religious freedom in employment settings.

Bethany Hutchison, president of the Darlington Nursing Union and one of the seven claimants, said the nurses had raised their concerns to protect women and had instead faced pressure and intimidation from the trust. She described the outcome as a vindication of their stand for dignity, privacy and common sense. "We hope it ensures that no woman is ever again made to feel unsafe in her workplace for speaking the truth," she stated. Hutchison and her colleagues had continued working at the trust throughout the tribunal process, a period she described as marked by sustained professional and personal strain.

Steve Russell, the trust's chief executive, said its handling of the situation should have been different. "We regret the impact this has had on the colleagues involved," he said. Russell did not address the specific conduct cited in the tribunal's findings but acknowledged the judgment required the trust to change its approach. The trust issued updated guidance in the wake of the ruling and has since been working with the nurses to reach a formal remedy agreement.

As part of that agreement, the trust has acknowledged the tribunal's findings and is writing to each of the seven nurses to offer a formal apology. It has committed to ensuring unisex facilities are available across its hospital sites and has confirmed that its updated guidance now states single-sex changing facilities should be used on the basis of biological sex. Russell said the trust intended to go further in improving changing provision for all staff, though no timeline was given for completing that work.

The £187,000 damages award does not include legal costs, which are yet to be determined at a further hearing. The trust spent £603,000 on its own legal representation during the case. Christian Concern, which backed the nurses, said that figure illustrated the scale of resources the trust had directed at contesting the claims rather than resolving them. The combined cost to the public purse, even before the nurses' legal costs are settled, already exceeds £790,000.

The case sits within a shifting legal and policy landscape around single-sex spaces in the workplace. The Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that the legal definition of "woman" under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex, a judgment that has since prompted public bodies including NHS trusts to review their policies on single-sex facilities. The Equality and Human Rights Commission subsequently issued updated guidance to employers on how to apply that ruling in practice. County Durham and Darlington's revised policy reflects that legal position, though the trust acknowledged its physical facilities have not yet fully caught up with it. For NHS employers more broadly, the case sets a clear precedent on the cost of failing to act on staff concerns in this area before they reach tribunal.