Healthcare workers invited to three-day diversity conference featuring pronouns and gender

Boss of short-staffed NHS contractor urges staff to sign up to event and complete ‘mandatory unconscious bias training’.

More than 1,000 healthcare workers have been invited to a three-day diversity conference that will feature discussions on pronouns and gender.

Despite record backlogs, the NHS main contractor for community healthcare in south-east London, Bromley Healthcare, is hosting the conference entitled “Be the change” from Oct 3-5.

The conference will include lectures on “pronouns, language and LGBTQ+ allyship” and “gender and LGBTQ+ sessions for colleagues working with children”.

Emails seen by The Telegraph also show healthcare staff were told to complete “mandatory unconscious bias training”.

Miriam Cates, the Conservative MP, said: “This kind of ‘training’ is not only a complete waste of taxpayers’ money, it is also deeply divisive, spreading destructive ideas that the majority of the population reject.

“‘Unconscious bias’ training has been shown to be a worthless exercise and we should be deeply concerned that the NHS is encouraging its staff to talk to children in their care about sex and sexuality.

“The Government should introduce a ban on all public sector training that does not directly relate to the activities for which staff are employed.”

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