Improving same-sex accommodation provision

The need to deliver the highest standards of privacy and dignity applies equally to all areas of a hospital. Achieving these standards will usually mean ensuring that men and women do not have to sleep in the same room or bay or share toilet and washing facilities. Patients should not have to pass through areas used by the opposite sex to reach their own facilities.

The following resources take into consideration acute as well as mental health and learning disability services.

Principles of same-sex accommodation

These principles underscore existing same-sex accommodation policy and guidance.  The principles should be used in conjunction with other guidance to drive forward improvement and ensure sustainability within each organisation.

Delivering same-sex accommodation principles.
Top tips for delivering same-sex accommodation
Some areas of care may be faced with greater challenges in delivering same-sex accommodation.  These documents look at overall principles for same-sex accommodation in specific areas and top tips for ensuring delivery.

Top Tips
Case studies
Learning from other NHS organisations facing similar challenges is a great way to learn and gain inspiration. This section provides examples of NHS organisations that have made good progress in delivering same-sex accommodation.

Case studies

NHS Institute: The Productive Series
The Productive Series consists of a number of modular improvement programmes containing practical guidance and tools to support NHS teams to redesign and streamline the way they manage and work.
   
New Priority Focus supplements have been developed to complement the existing Productive Series and include key principles for delivering same-sex accommodation. The supplements follow the same methodology and approach used in Productive programmes and will provide improvement tools and case studies to help deliver same-sex accommodation at the highest possible standards for patients and service users.

Visit the NHS Institute's The Productive Series.

Policies, Processes and Templates
This section provides examples of policies, processes and templates that have been developed for local use by NHS providers and commissioners working to improve provision of same-sex accommodation and may prove useful to organisations looking to develop their own delivering same-sex accommodation (DSSA) policies, processes and templates.

Note that some of these examples were created prior to the publication of the 2010/11 Operating Framework and consideration should be given to their ongoing review and update in response to further DSSA guidance or policy.

We suggest the use of global terminology i.e. ‘same-sex’ not ‘single-sex’ for all documentation relating to DSSA for the purpose of standardisation.

Mixed-Sex Occurrences Policies

These are examples of regional mixed-sex occurrences policies, developed by Strategic Health Authorities. They provide definitions of a mixed-sex occurrence and guidance on how to monitor, report and investigate them.

 East of England Regional DSSA policy (134.99 KB)
 South Central Mixed-Sex Occurrences policy (156.57 KB)
 North West Mixed-Sex Occurrences policy (116.13 KB)

Breach reporting/operational processes

The following documents give examples of how organisations have managed their breach monitoring and reporting processes.

1. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust letter

This  letter to sisters and charge nurses (36.00 KB) outlines the trust’s process for monitoring and reporting breaches.

2. Dewsbury and District Hospital – breach report summary

This is an  example of a hospital site breach report (115.50 KB), showing number of breaches, reasons and time taken to resolve.

3. NHS Bedfordshire – Same-sex accommodation decision to mix report

This is an  example of a form used to report mixed-sex occurrences (76.00 KB).

4. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS – same-sex accommodation breaches form

This is an  example of a form used to report mixed-sex occurrences (51.50 KB).

Training

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust

This is an  outline of the trust’s privacy and dignity training for staff (52.00 KB), exploring how staff treat and communicate with patients and how this impacts the patient experience.

Assurance Processes

Worcestershire Acute NHS Hospitals Trust

This trust has produced a  checklist of all the reports they produce relating to same-sex accommodation (28.50 KB). This may help you consider your own monitoring and reporting processes.

NHS Bedfordshire

This is an example of an assurance process this Primary Care Trust developed in order to report on the compliance with phase two of their delivering same-sex accommodation change process. Building on phase 1 (buildings), phase 2 of the project was to ensure all their providers were embedding delivering same-sex accommodation principles into organisational practice, from their buildings to policies and procedures and communications.

The first stage of the process was for NHS Bedfordshire to visit all provider units to check compliance, using the  Phase 2 DSSA visit checklist (150.50 KB), a privacy and dignity audit tool adapted from the NHS Institute.

All provider inpatient areas were revisited at least twice, with at least one planned and one unannounced visit. All findings, comments and outstanding actions from the first planned visit were recorded on the  Phase 2 visit sign-off sheet (69.50 KB). 

Where areas of non-compliance were found, an action plan to rectify the situation was agreed with the provider. A second unannounced visit was planned for each provider either to reassess areas of non-compliance, or to check for ongoing compliance. The  Phase 2 DSSA Unannounced Visit sign-off sheet (73.00 KB) was used to record any outstanding actions or comments.

NHS Bedfordshire also developed the  Same-Sex Accommodation Decision to Mix Exception Report (86.50 KB), which was circulated to all providers to allow them to record mixed-sex occurrences and report these to their Boards.

Establishing a DSSA action learning set
The ‘DSSA action learning set resource pack’ is a resource for staff and Dignity Champions to use to enable you to establish action-learning sets with colleagues, focused on improving same-sex accommodation provision in your area. Action Learning is a method of problem solving and learning in groups to bring about change for individuals, teams and organisations.

The pack includes:

•    A set of PowerPoint slides for an action learning set ‘kick-off’ session
•    Useful handouts and exercises to support the action learning set."

Documents:

Helpful questions in an action learning set
Powerful questions exercise
Group contract
Action learning problem brief
Putting it into practice exercise
Set meeting review form
Learning log
Evaluation handouts
Checklist for action learning set meetings
FAQs from IFAL
Action Learning set kick-off session presentation

These documents have been added to a zip file, which you can download to your computer.

   DSSA action learning set resource pack (849.40 KB).

Zip file instructions
The documents have been grouped into a single `zip file` which you can download to your computer. To see the individual files, `un-zip` the file using a tool such as WinZip, which may already be on your computer. Alternatively, you can download an unzipping tool from the internet. Download and save the `zip file` to your desktop or into a directory. Then right-click on the file name to show the short-cut menu; click `open with...` or `Extract to here` to open the folder and bring out the files. For more on how to use `zip files`, see this FAQ. 

Establishing a DSSA action learning set
The ‘DSSA action learning set resource pack’ is a resource for staff and Dignity Champions to use to enable you to establish action-learning sets with colleagues, focused on improving same-sex accommodation provision in your area. Action Learning is a method of problem solving and learning in groups to bring about change for individuals, teams and organisations.

The pack includes:

•    A set of PowerPoint slides for an action learning set ‘kick-off’ session
•    Useful handouts and exercises to support the action learning set."

Documents:

Helpful questions in an action learning set
Powerful questions exercise
Group contract
Action learning problem brief
Putting it into practice exercise
Set meeting review form
Learning log
Evaluation handouts
Checklist for action learning set meetings
FAQs from IFAL
Action Learning set kick-off session presentation

These documents have been added to a zip file, which you can download to your computer.

   DSSA action learning set resource pack (849.40 KB).

Zip file instructions
The documents have been grouped into a single `zip file` which you can download to your computer. To see the individual files, `un-zip` the file using a tool such as WinZip, which may already be on your computer. Alternatively, you can download an unzipping tool from the internet. Download and save the `zip file` to your desktop or into a directory. Then right-click on the file name to show the short-cut menu; click `open with...` or `Extract to here` to open the folder and bring out the files. For more on how to use `zip files`, see this FAQ.