NHS Scotland Pride Badge initiative: FOI release

Information requested

The following information related to the NHSScotland Pride Badge initiative:

• All emails, notes, minutes of meetings where the introduction of the badges and pledge were discussed with NHS Scotland, including meetings with external stakeholders.
• A full cost for the scheme

Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance exemptions under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) of FOISA apply to some of the information requested. This includes personal data such as names of third party individuals. Disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.

This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Furthermore, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing all the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. To release all emails pertaining to the NHS Scotland Pride Badge initiative would take significant time to complete. These emails span from the start of 2020 to the present day and involve a multitude of internal and external stakeholder. Each email would need to be read over and have personal data redacted in order to comply with the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.

You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requestin information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.

To clarify, The NHSScotland Pride Badge is an initiative developed in partnership between the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland. A Short Life Working Group (SLWG), consisting of stakeholders from NHS Boards and staff side, was established in early 2020, following a request from the NHS boards, to develop a new badge that was to be worn by colleagues across the national healthcare system to showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion as well as determination to challenge inappropriate behaviours.

Organisations external to the Scottish Government or NHS Scotland were engaged with through the SLWG meetings, as such, all information on their involvement in the initiative can be found in the attached minutes. We continue to work with a wide range of third sector organisations to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience can help to shape policy and practice to improve outcomes for LGBTI communities across Scotland.

Once the SLWG was formed in early 2020, the work was temporarily paused due to the pressures of the covid-19 pandemic. However, in November 2020 the SLWG was reconvened and the initiative was restarted.

From November 2020 – June 2021 the SLWG had seven meetings that were minuted. These minutes cover the design and implementation of the campaign, the aims of the campaign, and how success will be measured. A copy of these minutes, as well as the minutes from the Documentation/Toolkit Sub-Group meeting from 29/04/2021.

Additional, conversations took place with external stakeholders throughout this period, however they were not minuted. These included:

• Sub-groups: Two sub-groups were established from the wider SLWG. One group was responsible for the documentation/toolkit that supports the Pride Badge roll out, whereas, the other sub-group led on the communication/design work associated with the initiative. While only one of these sub-group meetings were minuted, you will find summaries of the work these groups carried out in the SLWG minutes.
• National Education Scotland (NES), who completed all the design work for the NHSScotland Pride Badge except the video. NES consulted the SLWG throughout the process to make sure it was aligned with the vision of the SLWG.
• The 2D Workshop made the NHSScotland Pride Badge video. Again, all of their design work was agreed by members of the SLWG to ensure it aligned with their vision.

As requested, please find a breakdown of the full cost of the scheme, accurate as of the 07/07/2021.

• Development and design of the Pledge, Toolkit Document, a suite of social media templates and poster/pop-up banner template: £1,700.00
• Development of a short video animation, which included script writing, storyboard, motion graphics, sounds and project management: £7,500.00
• Purchase and distribution of 21,500 Pride Badges (initial stock) to be distributed among the boards: £22,878.00
• Total expenditure: £32,078.00

To conclude, The NHSScotland Pride Badge showcases our commitment to foster an environment that is open, tolerant and inclusive for all. Staff and patients alike should be free to be their true selves, safe in the knowledge that they will be listened to and not judged. The initiative was developed by an NHS staff working group and has been presented to NHS Leadership and partnership boards who showed overwhelming support.

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI202100213501 - Information released

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23 page PDF

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1.2 MB