Recording of sex and or gender of severely learning disabled adults
Dear Croydon Borough Council,
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, which relates to care for severely learning disabled adults, specifically those who lack capacity to express a view on their own *gender* or any preference as to the *sex* of their care staff, such as the learning disabled female whose rape and infection with HIV by male care staff is described in this Brent Safeguarding Adult Review adultbfinalreportnov2018_13.pdf (inzu.net) : .
1. Does your social care management system (the database or other systems your organisation uses to record personal data for disabled adults in connection with your duties under the Care Act 2014) include a field for the characteristic of *gender*?
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
b. Is it mandatory to populate this field, or can it be left blank
c. How is it populated for adults who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender
2. Does it include a field for the characteristic of *sex*?
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
b. Is the field mandatory, or can it be left blank?
3. Do you have policies or procedures that have the objective of ensuring that users of your services (commissioned or provided directly) of the female sex is who require assistance with intimate care receive this from carers of the female sex. If so, please provide copies.
4. Please provide copies of any Equality Impact Assessment dealing with the recording of the protected characteristic of sex and/or gender for severely learning disabled adults.
5. Please provide copies of any assessments of the impact on your compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty of your how you record the protected characteristic of sex and/or the unprotected characteristic of gender for severely learning disabled adults.
Please provide the information in the form of an email.
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.
If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me via email and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for and discuss the request.
Yours faithfully,
Saladin Pallavicini
Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA
Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email. If
you have a processing request, please ensure you quote that reference in
your emails to us.
DEAR Saladin Pallavicini
Freedom of information request - FOI/6990
Subject: Recording of sex and or gender of severely learning disabled
adults
We are just emailing you to update you on your open Information Request.
We are currently in the process of updating our systems and part of this
update will mean that your open Information Request has been assigned a
new reference: FOI/6990
Thank you in advanced for your patients patience and whilst we will
continue top process your request. We will issue a response or update to
you as soon as we are able.
Unfortunately, the Council is currently experiencing a delay in our
response times due to demand and resource. As an organisation we are aware
of our legal duties under the legislation and are making every effort to
improve our position and respond to requests within our statutory
timeframes as quickly as possible. All requests are being monitored and
continually reviewed to provide you with an expected date for disclosure.
London Borough of Croydon takes its role as a Data Controller seriously
and would like to thank you for your continued patience and understanding
whilst we improve our service to you.
Kind Regard
Information Management Team
Croydon Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
7th Floor, Zone B
Bernard Weatherill House
8 Mint Walk
Croydon CR0 1EA
Dear [email address],
You have missed the deadline for responding to my freedom of information request. As well as, bizarrely, thanking me for my 'patients patience' (I have no patients, and not a great deal of patience) while you continue 'top process' my request, you told me that my request would be 'continually reviewed' to provide an expected date of disclosure. What is the expected date, please?
Yours sincerely,
Saladin Pallavicini
Good morning,
Apologies for sending you the wrong templated acknowledgment for your
request. This was an error which has since been fixed.
In regards to your request, the deadline for processing is today, and
having contacted the service again this morning, they are hopeful their
response will be signed off for issuing today.
Kind regards,
Information Team.
Dear [email address],
You have missed the deadline for responding to my freedom of information
request. As well as, bizarrely, thanking me for my 'patients patience'
(I have no patients, and not a great deal of patience) while you
continue 'top process' my request, you told me that my request would be
'continually reviewed' to provide an expected date of disclosure. What
is the expected date, please?
Yours sincerely,
Saladin Pallavicini
Information Team Croydon
Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House
7th Floor, Zone B
Croydon
CR0 1EA
Contact: Information Team
[Croydon Borough Council request email]
Dear Saladin Pallavicini
Request FOI/6990
Further to your request received on 16/02/2023, I confirm that the Council
has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
For ease of reference, I will now address each of your questions in turn.
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request
the following information, which relates to care for severely learning
disabled adults, specifically those who lack capacity to express a view on
their own *gender* or any preference as to the *sex* of their care staff,
such as the learning disabled female whose rape and infection with HIV by
male care staff is described in this Brent Safeguarding Adult Review
adultbfinalreportnov2018_13.pdf (inzu.net)
1. Does your social care management system (the database or other systems
your organisation uses to record personal data for disabled adults in
connection with your duties under the Care Act 2014) include a field
for the characteristic of *gender*?
Yes
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so,
what are they?
Defined set – MALE, FEMALE
b. Is it mandatory to populate this field, or can it be left blank c. How
is it populated for adults who lack capacity to express a view on their
own gender
MANDATORY
2. Does it include a field for the characteristic of *sex*?
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so,
what are they?
b. Is the field mandatory, or can it be left blank?
No
3. Do you have policies or procedures that have the objective of ensuring
that users of your services (commissioned or provided directly) of the
female sex is who require assistance with intimate care receive this from
carers of the female sex. If so, please provide copies.
We do not have specific policies for this, however person-centred care is
a key of social work practice and it is fairly common for panel to agree
care to meet personalised needs which includes gender & language of the
carer.
4. Please provide copies of any Equality Impact Assessment dealing with
the recording of the protected characteristic of sex and/or gender for
severely learning disabled adults.
Not held.
5. Please provide copies of any assessments of the impact on your
compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty of your how you record the
protected characteristic of sex and/or the unprotected characteristic of
gender for severely learning disabled adults.
Not held.
The Council publishes Access to Information requests and responses on its
online Disclosure Log. (Any request included within this log will be
anonymised appropriately)
To view the Council’s Disclosure Log, please visit our website available
here:
[1]The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act | Croydon Council
(disclosure-log.co.uk)
If you are dissatisfied with the way the Council has handled your request
under the Freedom of Information Act, you may ask for an internal review.
This should be submitted to us within 40 working days of this response.
You can do this by outlining the details of your complaint by:
Email: [2][Croydon Borough Council request email]
Writing: Information Team
London Borough of Croydon
Bernard Weatherill House
Floor 7 - Zone B
8 Mint Walk
Croydon, CR0 1EA
Any requests received after the 40 working day time limit will be
considered only at the discretion of the council.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Information Team
Croydon Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House,
Mint Walk,
Croydon,
CR0 1EA
[3][Croydon Borough Council request email]
[4][email address]
References
Visible links
1. https://croydon.disclosure-log.co.uk/
2. mailto:[Croydon Borough Council request email]
3. mailto:[Croydon Borough Council request email]
4. mailto:[email address]
Dear Croydon Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Croydon Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Recording of sex and or gender of severely learning disabled adults'.
You have responded to most parts of my request for information, but not to question 1c. How is it [the field for gender] populated for adults who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...
Yours faithfully,
Saladin Pallavicini
God afternoon,
The service say that there is a field for Gender in LAS. If people lack capacity to tell the social worker what gender they are I imagine the social worker uses the information that they have and records it themselves on the client’s behalf.
Kind regards,
Information Team
Croydon Digital Services
Assistant Chief Executive Directorate
Bernard Wetherill House,
Mint Walk,
Croydon,
CR0 1EA
[Croydon Borough Council request email]
[email address]
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