Information about your dealings with Stonewall [Extraneous material removed]

The request was successful.

Dear Your Homes Newcastle,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the following descriptions:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,” including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind, if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019; (ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme in the future, and if so which.

Yours faithfully,

Ermine Amies

Information Requests (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

 

Dear   Ms Amies

  

Thank you for your request for information received on 06/02/2021. 

  

We are required under the Freedom of Information Act to provide you with a
response within 20 working days.  In this case that would be by
05/03/2021.    

   

If there is anything further you would like us to know about your request,
please contact  [1][email address] and quote
reference number [FOI- ID].  

   

Yours sincerely  

  
Information Governance Team  

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[Your Homes Newcastle request email]

Information Requests (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

2 Attachments

Dear Ermine Amies

 

Thank you for your request dated 6^th February 2021. Please find attached
our response, plus a copy of our Stonewall Workplace Equality Index report
2019 in response to part 2 of your request.

 

Kind regards

 

Information Governance Team

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Dear Information Requests (YHN),

Re Freedom of Information request re: FOI-083
Contact Officer: Mike Scott
Response from: Your Homes Newcastle, 5th March 2021

Thank you so much for your response .

Your response omits information requested so this is to request an internal review.

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,” including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please redact personal details if necessary.

You say: “The Stonewall Diversity Champions’ Programme is an Employers’ programme which includes access to best practice guides, resources and an account manager for questions and advice on LGBT issues. This is a programme for which an organisation pays a membership fee, rather than submitting an application. YHN was a Stonewall Diversity Champion in both 2018 and 2019.
YHN made a submission in September 2018 for the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI) 2019. The submission is made online and the process does not involve receiving a copy of the submission. YHN did not make a submission to the Workplace Equality Index in either 2019 (for the 2020 index) or 2020 (for the 2021 index).”

Please review.

As the Workplace Equality Index is a benchmark tool and a "developmental framework" which you use to measure your achievements and progress on LGBT equality, you will have assessed and reported on 10 areas of employment policy and practice, drafting answers and updating file information.
So I do not accept that you do not hold or have access to this information electronically and/or in final drafts prepared for submission, assessing and reporting on those 10 areas of employment policy and practice, and current year evidence submitted and/or have shared the finished submission with management and/or have links to references, attachments or appendices or other additional information & research for the submission.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to either application or programme.

You say: “The summary report received from Stonewall in 2019 in response to our WEI submission, made in 2018, is attached to the response email.”

Thank you for the summary report.

Please review. You have omitted the notes from the feedback meeting and other feedback on HR policies etc you have received as part of the programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be entitled to withhold it).
This is a clear description of what I am seeking.

You say: “We receive regular monthly newsletters from Stonewall and occasional invitations to best practice seminars or other similar material. As this information would be ‘reasonably accessible’ by subscribing to a mailing list we are not including it here, under the exemption provided by section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”
Please review.

It is not credible that you only receive newsletters and marketing. I wish to see every written communication that you have received from Stonewall in the two years specified. If you have been deluged with communications from Stonewall in that period, it is possible that that is a large class of information, but the fact that it is large does not affect its clarity.
I direct your attention to your section 16 duty to provide me with advice and assistance. The specific assistance I would like you to provide me with to help me to refine my request and make it possible for you to comply without incurring excessive costs is a list of the custodians (by job title; I do not need to know names) you believe to have been the recipients of such communications.
That, of course, does not exhaust your duty to provide me with advice and assistance: you should also turn your minds to any other ways in which you can help me to refine my request so that it captures a representative picture of your dealings with Stonewall without exceeding the appropriate limit.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme in the future, and if so which.
You say: “YHN has renewed its membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions’ programme for 2020. We have no current plans to make a submission to the Workplace Equality Index.”

Please review.

Please advise if you will continue or renew your membership (of any Stonewall scheme) in the future, and specifically in 2021 or 2022 and the WEI in 2022.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Ermine Amies

Note: For completeness, I am noting the two questions where no review is necessary here:

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind, if no further assessment was done).
YHN has not carried an Equality Impact Assessment in relation to membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions’ Programme or submission to the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019; (ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.
2019 – £2,500 membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions’ programme
2020 – £2,500 membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions’ programme

Information Requests (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

Dear Ermine

I am writing to provide an update in relation to your request for an internal review in relation to your Freedom of Information Request FOI - 083.

Unfortunately due to staff shortages I have been unable to complete the investigatory element of my review. My Colleague, Mike Scott who submitted the original response is currently out of the business and it's important that I speak to him for completeness. I am hopeful that he will be returning to work next week and will endeavour to provide an update by close of business on the 16th April 2021.

Please accept my sincere apologies and do not hesitate to contact me in the meantime if I can be of any assistance.

Kind regards

Karen

Karen Hedley | Governance and Implementation Manager

T: 0191 2781543 M: 07929825962
W: www.yhn.org.uk

‘Making living easier’

Your Homes Newcastle | Benton Park Road | Newcastle | NE7 7LX
Your Homes Newcastle Limited. Registered in England and Wales. Registration Number 5076256.
Registered Office: Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon Tyne. NE1 8PR. A Company controlled by Newcastle City Council.

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Hedley, Karen (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

7 Attachments

Dear Ermine

 

Please see the attached response to your request for an internal review in
relation to FOI083.

 

Due to the size of the attachments I will send a series of emails.  I will
confirm once I have sent the final email.

 

Kind regards

 

Karen Hedley | Governance and Implementation Manager

T: 0191 2781543
W: [1]www.yhn.org.uk

‘Making living easier’         

[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]
Your Homes Newcastle | Benton Park Road | Newcastle | NE7 7LX

Your Homes Newcastle Limited. Registered in England and Wales.
Registration Number 5076256.
Registered Office: Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon
Tyne. NE1 8PR. A Company controlled by Newcastle City Council.

 

 

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References

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1. http://www.yhn.org.uk/
2. https://www.facebook.com/yourhomesnewcas...
3. https://twitter.com/NewsfromYHN
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-ho...

Hedley, Karen (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

8 Attachments

Dear Ermine

 

As per previous email

 

Kind regards

 

Karen

 

 

Karen Hedley | Governance and Implementation Manager

T: 0191 2781543
W: [1]www.yhn.org.uk

‘Making living easier’         

[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]
Your Homes Newcastle | Benton Park Road | Newcastle | NE7 7LX

Your Homes Newcastle Limited. Registered in England and Wales.
Registration Number 5076256.
Registered Office: Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon
Tyne. NE1 8PR. A Company controlled by Newcastle City Council.

 

 

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References

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1. http://www.yhn.org.uk/
2. https://www.facebook.com/yourhomesnewcas...
3. https://twitter.com/NewsfromYHN
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-ho...

Hedley, Karen (YHN), Your Homes Newcastle

9 Attachments

Dear Ermine

 

Please see the attached.  This is email 1 of 3 and the final
correspondence in relation to the response to your request for an internal
review in relation to FOI083.

 

Please do not hesitate contact me should you have any queries.

 

Kind regards

 

Karen Hedley

 

 

Karen Hedley | Governance and Implementation Manager

T: 0191 2781543
W: [1]www.yhn.org.uk

‘Making living easier’         

[2][IMG] [3][IMG] [4][IMG]
Your Homes Newcastle | Benton Park Road | Newcastle | NE7 7LX

Your Homes Newcastle Limited. Registered in England and Wales.
Registration Number 5076256.
Registered Office: Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle Upon
Tyne. NE1 8PR. A Company controlled by Newcastle City Council.

 

 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.yhn.org.uk/
2. https://www.facebook.com/yourhomesnewcas...
3. https://twitter.com/NewsfromYHN
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-ho...