The Department of Health has been criticised for spending £36,000 on a two-day residential course for gay and lesbian NHS managers. The report follows extensive ‘freedom of information’ requests put to health and local government authorities regarding gay issues from two UK national newspapers.
The programme is run by gay rights charity Stonewall to encourage achievement in gay and lesbian staff. Between 30 and 40 NHS managers and would-be managers are to attend the leadership course at Ashridge Business School, which is at a Gothic manor in Hertfordshire, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Patient Association both criticised the £1,000-a-head trip. Emma Boon, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, called it a “luxury junket” and added: “It’s questionable whether or not gay managers need specific training and marking them out for special treatment like a high-end breaks in mansions could even create resentment.”
Although when questions Boon didn’t actually know the entire course content or what if any refreshments are laid on to quality the ‘luxury junket’ description she fired off. Boon a former radio reporter has only been with the TPA for a year, denies being anti-gay but is known to have made homophobic remarks to former colleges when she freelanced at a station in Essex.
Stonewall advised that many gay and lesbian NHS workers face discrimination in the workplace. The charity added that the accommodation was not luxurious.
A Department of Health spokesman said to The Telegraph “We are funding this programme to create a network of skilled and senior people to promote lesbian, gay and bisexual equality at local and regional levels.”
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