Information about your dealings with Stonewall CYPS [Extraneous material removed]

The request was partially successful.

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

Dear National Citizens Service Trust,

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 “Children and Young Peoples Services Champion” or for Children and Young People's Services 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 2020or or 2021 from Stonewall in relation to either application or programme.
3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 or 2021 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. Any training reports you have received from Stonewall in 2019 and 2020 and 2021 and details of online training completed by your staff, with staff title by month in 2019, 2020 & 2021. Please redact personal details if necessary.
5. 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).
6. 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.
7. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme in the future, and if so which.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

NCS FoI, National Citizen Service Trust

Ref No: FOI36

Dear Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs, 

Thank you for your email requesting the following information:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Children and Young
Peoples Services Champion” or for Children and Young People's Services 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 2020or or 2021 from Stonewall in
relation to either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 or 2021 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. Any training reports you have received from Stonewall in 2019 and 2020
and 2021 and details of  online training completed by your staff, with
staff title by month in 2019, 2020 & 2021. Please redact personal details
if necessary.

5. 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).

6. 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.

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

We are treating your correspondence as a request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. You should expect to receive a response
to your request within 20 working days from the day when your request was
originally received, 15/03/2021.

If you have any queries about this request do not hesitate to contact us.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications. 

Kind Regards,

NCS FOI Team

show quoted sections

NCS FoI, National Citizen Service Trust

Ref No: FOI36

Dear Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs, 

Please see National Citizens Service Trust response to your Freedom Of
Information Request received by NCS FOI team dated 15.02.2021.

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

NCS held a Membership for Children and Young People's Services (CYPS)
Champion which ended November 2020, there was no formal application
process. NCS made no application to be included in “Workplace Equality
Index”.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 or or 2021 from Stonewall in
relation to either application or programme.

There is no formal application process to be a  “Children and Young
People's Services (CYPS) Champion''. NCS did not apply to be included in
the “Workplace Equality Index”. Please see response to Question 3 in
relation to communications between Stonewall and NCS.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 or 2021 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).

NCS is unable to provide all communications received from Stonewall
between 2019, 2020 and 2021 as, from our preliminary assessment, gathering
this information would exceed reasonable cost in time spent by public
authority staff as described in Freedom of Information Act 2000 Part 1
Section 12. 

Under the Fees Regulations, a public authority can cost the level of work
at a rate of £25 per hour, up to a maximum fee of £450. It is estimated
that determining if we hold the information would take approximately 10
hours (£250.00) as the information would sit with various staff members in
various different aspects of the business. Locating and extracting the
information, retrieving the information, and subsequent extraction of
disclosable information from the documents containing the information we
estimate would take approximately 12 hours (£300). This will bring the
total cost to at least £550.00, which is in excess of the £450.00, or
18-hours, threshold as set out in the Fees Regulations. 

In order to assist you, we would be grateful if you narrowed the scope of
your request, either by more specific dates, or by the topic or type of
information you seek access to. Following this clarification NCS FOI team
will assess if we are able to comply with your request.

4. Any training reports you have received from Stonewall in 2019 and 2020
and 2021 and details of  online training completed by your staff, with
staff title by month in 2019, 2020 & 2021. Please redact personal details
if necessary.

As part of the CYPS membership, NCS had access to 10 e-learning places. 

In November 2020, the following staff titles completed this training: 

- Safeguarding Manager 

- Safeguarding Coordinator 

- Inclusion Manager

- Inclusion Associate 

- Programme Design Associate 

- Extension Implementation Lead

- Regional Graduate Coordinator 

- Regional Graduate Coordinator 

- Extension Action Coordinator

5. 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).

NCS made no applications to Stonewall therefore no equality impact
assessments were carried out.

6. 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.

There was one payment made to Stonewall Equality LTD London for an annual
membership for the Children and Young Peoples Services (CYPS) Champion.
Payment was made on 30/01/2020 for a total of 1,140 GBP.

NCS Trust joined Stonewalls’ Children and Young People Services Programme
in November 2019. This annual membership is aimed at any organisation
seeking to ensure the services they deliver are inclusive of LGBT young
people. 

[1]https://www.stonewall.org.uk/children-an...

This membership expired in November 2020 and was not renewed. 

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

Membership for Children and Young People's Services (CYPS) champions ended
November 2020. There has been no business decision made regarding whether
NCS will renew CYPS membership in the future. 

Next Steps

 

We hope the attached response is clear . If you have any further queries
please do not hesitate to contact us on this email address.

NCS Trust is committed to making information available under the Freedom
Of Information Act 2000 and to ensuring that the service it provides for
those wishing to gain access to information is simple, efficient and
effective. If you feel the service you have received does not meet the
legislative requirements please write, giving details of your complaint,
by email to "[2][National Citizen Service Trust request email]" or, if you are contacting us by post,
by writing to the following address: National Citizen Service Trust, 1st
Floor, 48 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1JF.

Your complaint will be fully investigated and treated confidentially by
NCS Trust. If your complaint is about a response to a request for
information, it will be dealt with by a member of staff at NCS Trust who
was not involved in the original decision. An initial response will be
made within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. A full
investigation and any decision will be made and conveyed to you within 20
working days. If we are unable to deal with your complaint within this
timeframe we will inform you and let you know the reason for the delay.

If your complaint is upheld you will be notified of what action will be
taken. If the complaint is not upheld you will be given a reason for the
decision. If NCS Trust does not deal with your complaint to your
satisfaction, you are entitled to refer your complaint to:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[3]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,                                               

The NCS Trust FOI Team

[4][National Citizen Service Trust request email]

National Citizen Service Trust is a not-for-profit organisation
incorporated by Royal Charter and established to shape, support, champion
and lead a thriving National Citizen Service.

National Citizen Service Trust is registered in England and Wales with
Royal Charter Body number RC000894. Our registered office is at The
Pembroke Building, Kensington Village, Avonmore Road, London, W14 8DG.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

This message is private and confidential. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/children-an...
2. mailto:[National Citizen Service Trust request email]
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/
4. mailto:[National Citizen Service Trust request email]

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

Dear NCS FoI,
Thank you for your response.

You asked for clarification and offered assistance on part 3: Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 or 2021 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).

I wish to see every written communication that you have received from Stonewall in the 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 would like you to provide me with help to refine my request and make it possible for you to comply without incurring excessive costs by providing 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.

On part 7 re renewal, has a decision been taken not to renew or will there be a business decision later this year?

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

Dear NCS FoI,
Thank you for suggesting I refine my request.
I wish to see every written communication that you have received from Stonewall in the years specified, including advice on HR policies. 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 it is large does not affect it's 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 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 refine my request so that it captures a representative picture of your dealings with Stonewall without exceeding the appropriate limit.
Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs

NCS FoI, National Citizen Service Trust

Ref:FOI36

Dear Mrs Belinda Barton Gibbs,

Thank you for your email dated 07/03/2021 in which you clarified your
freedom of information request. In order to assist you with your request
without exceeding the appropriate limit as per section 12 Freedom of
Information Act 2000, NCS can provide you with an overview of our
communications with Stonewall.

In November 2019 NCS Trust paid for an annual membership of Stonewall's
Children and Young People Services (CYPS) scheme. This membership expired
in November 2020. 

As part of the CYPS membership, our staff communicated with Stonewall
about-  

1. Accessing and exiting the CYPS scheme 

Colleagues leading this relationship exchanged emails with leads of the
scheme at Stonewall scoping the services provided within the membership
and making payments. 

Emails were also exchanged inviting NCS to continue our membership, these
invites were declined. There are no current plans to renew NCS' membership
of the CYPS scheme. 

2. Accessing CYPS membership services 

We exchanged emails with Stonewall contacts in relation to attending
roundtable events with other representatives from the youth sector. These
emails cover both event logistics, feedback etc and notes, resources etc
from the events. NCS also received a number of emails from Stonewall in
relation to accessing e-learning modules which address technical/ access
issues. 

As part of our CYPS membership, NCS exchanged emails with our account
manager in relation to the development of operational guidance on trans
inclusion. This guidance is being developed for NCS staff.  We can not
provide you with any documents relating to this guidance. This is
information intended for future publication and exempt under Freedom of
Information Act 2000 Part 2 Section 22.

NCS job titles that have had communication with Stonewall between
2019-2021 are as follows:

Inclusion Manager

Inclusion Associate 

Marketing Director 

Social Media Content Executive

Senior Social Media Manager

With regards to your email dated 11/03/2021, requesting: 

“every written communication that you have received from Stonewall in the
years specified, including advice on HR policies.” 

I can confirm that NCS has not consulted with Stonewall regarding our HR
policies. 

Next Steps

 

We hope the attached response is clear . If you have any further queries
please do not hesitate to contact us on this email address.

NCS Trust is committed to making information available under the Freedom
Of Information Act 2000 and to ensuring that the service it provides for
those wishing to gain access to information is simple, efficient and
effective. If you feel the service you have received does not meet the
legislative requirements please write, giving details of your complaint,
by email to "[1][National Citizen Service Trust request email]" or, if you are contacting us by post,
by writing to the following address: National Citizen Service Trust, 1st
Floor, 48 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1JF.

Your complaint will be fully investigated and treated confidentially by
NCS Trust. If your complaint is about a response to a request for
information, it will be dealt with by a member of staff at NCS Trust who
was not involved in the original decision. An initial response will be
made within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. A full
investigation and any decision will be made and conveyed to you within 20
working days. If we are unable to deal with your complaint within this
timeframe we will inform you and let you know the reason for the delay.

If your complaint is upheld you will be notified of what action will be
taken. If the complaint is not upheld you will be given a reason for the
decision. If NCS Trust does not deal with your complaint to your
satisfaction, you are entitled to refer your complaint to:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

[2]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,                                               

The NCS Trust FOI Team

[3][National Citizen Service Trust request email]

National Citizen Service Trust is a not-for-profit organisation
incorporated by Royal Charter and established to shape, support, champion
and lead a thriving National Citizen Service.

National Citizen Service Trust is registered in England and Wales with
Royal Charter Body number RC000894. Our registered office is at The
Pembroke Building, Kensington Village, Avonmore Road, London, W14 8DG.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

This message is private and confidential. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us and remove it from your system.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[National Citizen Service Trust request email]
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[National Citizen Service Trust request email]