Grants, funding and evaluation of the work of Business Disability Forum, British Deaf Association and Stonewall Scotland: FOI release

Information requested

Various information around grants, funding and our evaluation of the work of Business Disability Forum, British Deaf Association and Stonewall Scotland and our communication with NHS Boards in relation to the work of these organisations.

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

In relation to the Business Disability Forum you asked for:

• A precis of the decision making process, including who initiated the idea [i.e. did it originate internally to government or did it come from the Business Disability Forum], who was involved in the development of the idea and who signed off the decision, to fund the Business Disability Forum for the ‘whole of the NHS’, what was the primary product being made available, and including the amount of funding involved and the period of time covered by the funding
• A copy of the letter to NHS Boards advising them of the decision, how to access the product available from the Business Disability Forum, and for how long 

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

NHS Scotland has been a member of Business Disability Forum (BDF) since March 2005. The Scottish Government’s Health Workforce Directorate, lead on this and pay the membership fees. The BDFis a not-for-profit membership organisation that works in partnership with businesses, Government, and disabled people to remove barriers to inclusion.

We were unable to find a summary of the initial decision to begin membership in 2005. However, from 2018, Scottish Government has paid for membership of NHS Scotland in the BDF via grant agreement
letters. The reasoning for ongoing membership from that point is stated in the grant agreement letter (grant letter attached) as: “NHS Scotland to continuously improve our strategy and encourage a
disability friendly culture throughout the organisation, support the provision of a quality resource for consultation, reference, and legal advice”.

The primary products made available to Health Boards from this membership are disability smart employment resources to support NHS staff and managers. Access to BDF resources are available to NHS staff through TURAS, the online learning platform available to all NHS Boards, and other learning systems. Therefore there is no letter to all Boards specifically about membership in the BDF.

The amount of funding, payable over financial year of 2018-2019 was up to £22,200, where you can see other details from the grant letter attached. There was also a grant of up to £24,600 payable over September 2022- August 2023, (grant letter attached).

You also requested:

• What arrangements were put in place by government for evaluating the project, both in terms of achieving outcomes and in terms of value for money, and a copy of any evaluation which has been carried out
• What arrangements were put in place to capture data from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money
• The names of the NHS Boards who accessed the product on offer

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Please see the list of documents not held below:

• Project evaluation
• Arrangements for data to be captured from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money

This is because the Scottish Government did not carry out evaluations, given that BDF is a membership organisation and the grant agreements were not awarded for projects. In terms of value for money, the costs of each health board paying for the resources offered by BDF membership, would be far higher than Scottish Government paying for membership for the whole of NHS Scotland. Every Health Board in Scotland can access the resources supplied by BDF, free of charge.

In relation to Stonewall Scotland you asked for:

•  A precis of the decision making process, including who initiated the idea, who was involved in the development of the idea and who off the decision, to fund the Stonewall and which included Health Boards being invited to participate in the Workplace Equality Index, what was the primary product being made available, and including the amount of funding involved and the period of time covered by the funding
• A copy of the letter to NHS Boards advising them of the decision, how to access the product available from Stonewall, and for how long
•  What arrangements were put in place by government for evaluating the project, both in terms of achieving outcomes and in terms of value for money, and a copy of any evaluation which has been carried out  
• What arrangements were put in place to capture data from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money
• The names of the NHS Boards who accessed the product on offer   

The decision to become partners with Stonewall Scotland was because : “The National Partnership  Agreement between NHS Scotland and Stonewall Scotland was established in summer 2016 in order  develop and promote best practice on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) inclusion throughout NHS Scotland.”

The primary aim of the project was for Health Boards to: “engage with the nationally recognised Workplace Equality Index by August 2017, so that we could compile a picture of good practice in NHS Scotland, and assist Health Boards to improve extant practice”.

Later in September 2017, it was agreed to provide Stonewall Scotland with a grant of up to £40,000 between financial years 2017 – 2019 for this reason: “The Scottish Ministers in exercise of their powers under 97(1) Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 hereby offer to give to Stonewall Scotland (“the Grantee”) a grant of up to £40,000 STERLING, payable over the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years(31/07/2017 to 31/07/2018 in connection with the National Partnership Agreement between NHSScotland and Stonewall Scotland to promote best practice on LGBT inclusion, which is more particularly described in Part 1 of SCHEDULE 1 (“the Programme”)” (grant letter attached).

The following grant in 2018 was set for the same reasoning as the previous one, for the amount of up to £47,380, payable over financial years 2019 – 2021, (grant letter attached).

You also asked for:

• What arrangements were put in place by government for evaluating the project, both in terms of achieving outcomes and in terms of value for money, and a copy of any evaluation which has been 
• carried out
• What arrangements were put in place to capture data from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money
• The names of the NHS Boards who accessed the product on offer

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

We are unable to provide you with a copy of letter to NHS boards advising them of our decision as above, because the Scottish Government does not direct Health Boards to engage with Stonewall Scotland. And, regarding evaluation methods and which Boards engaged with Stonewall Scotland, this is not held by the Scottish Government because the purpose of Boards participating in the collaboration with Stonewall and their entry into the Workplace Equality Index (WEI) was to allow them to measure their progress on delivering workplace equality for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people. Therefore this information is held by Stonewall and published within their WEI reports.

However, as stated in a report by Stonewall Scotland, Stonewall Scotland and NHS Scotland partnership 2016/2017 (published on their website) there have been a significant amount of engagement with various Health Boards. In early 2017 Stonewall Scotland met with 19 of the 22 Health Boards as part of an ongoing partnership with NHS Scotland.

In relation to the British Deaf Association (Scotland), you asked for:

• A precis of the decision making process, including who initiated the idea, who was involved in the development of the idea and who signed off the decision, to fund the British Deaf Association Scotland to support the public sector with implementing their work in relation to BSL, what was the primary product being made available, and including the amount of funding involved and the period of time covered by the funding
• A copy of the letter to NHS Boards advising them of the decision, how to access the product available from the Business Deaf Association Scotland, and for how long
• What arrangements were put in place by government for evaluating the project, both in terms of achieving outcomes and in terms of value for money, and a copy of any evaluation which has been carried out
• What arrangements were put in place to capture data from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money
• The names of the NHS Boards who accessed the product on offer

You asked for:

• A precis of the decision making process, including who initiated the idea, who was involved in the development of the idea and who signed off the decision, to fund the British Deaf Association Scotland to support the public sector with implementing their work in relation to BSL, what was the primary product being made available, and including the amount of funding involved and the period of time covered by the funding

A grant was offered in 2014 to BDA under SECTION 16B OF THE NHS (SCOTLAND) ACT 1978, for the amount £6,250 (grant letter attached). There were further grant offers made to BDA in 2017 and 2019, where their details are as follows (grant letter attached): “The Scottish Ministers in exercise of their powers under Section 10 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 hereby offer to give to British Deaf Association (“the Grantee”) a grant of up to £35,000, payable over 1 November 2017 – 31 March 2019, in connection with Digital Communication in respect of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015, which is more particularly described in Part 1 of Schedule 1 (“the Project”) and subject to the following terms and conditions. Ministers are at present minded to give a grant of £25,000 over 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020 in respect of this project, but these figures are indicative only and are dependent on the available budget. Final figures will be confirmed with the Grantee once the Equality Budget has been set for 2019-20 financial year”.

As explained under SECTION 16B OF THE NHS (SCOTLAND) ACT 1978, “ The Secretary of State may, upon such terms and subject to such conditions as he may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine, give to a voluntary organisation to which this section applies assistance by way of grant or loan, or partly in the one way and partly in the other”. In the grant letter attached of 2014, it is stated that BDA were successful in their application for this grant after detailed scrutiny of all the grant applications at the time.

Regarding the grant paid over 2017-2019, as stated in the relevant grant letter, “ The expected outcome of the Grant is to establish a one-stop digital platform to provide information and guidelines to public bodies in order to improve D/deaf and Deafblind BSL users’ involvement in daily and public life in Scotland in relation to the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 through digital communication”, The same Project was meant when considering another grant over 2019-2020 financial year.

You also requested:

• What arrangements were put in place by government for evaluating the project, both in terms of achieving outcomes and in terms of value for money, and a copy of any evaluation which has been carried out
• What arrangements were put in place to capture data from NHS Boards to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of the project and to show value for money
• The names of the NHS Boards who accessed the product on offer

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

In the grant letter of 2014, it was stated that: “We are keen to review the 6-monthly grant progress reports referred to in the grant conditions and require a mid-year report in November 2014 
and end year report in April 2015”.

You can find some information about the BSL grant made to BDA and various reports on how that grant was used on BDA’s site at the following links among others:

• EHRF - British Deaf Association (bda.org.uk)
• Research & Consultations - British Deaf Association (bda.org.uk) 
• BSL-Scotland-Act-2015-Health-FINAL.pdf (bda.org.uk)
• Helen-Morgans-Wenhold-Scottish-Deaf-BSL-Community-Report-HMW-2022-4.pdf (bda.org.uk)
• Scotland: BSL National Plan event - British Deaf Association (bda.org.uk)

If you would like any further information in relation to this grant for BDA, you can contact Avril Hepner, BSL Scotland Manager at avril.hepner@bda.org.uk.

For the grants made in 2017 and 2019 we are unable to provide you with a copy of letters to NHS boards advising them of our decision as above, because the Scottish Government does not direct Health Boards to engage with the organisations listed in your correspondence, British Deaf Association.

However, we are happy to provide you with copies of the progress reports covering the work under the current Equality and Human Rights Fund, which commenced in September 2021. The progress reports covering October 2021 – March 2022, April – September 2022, and April – September 2023 are attached to this letter. You can find the October 2022 – March 2023 report on the Inspiring Scotland website at: Oct 22-March 23_E&HR Progress Report final for publication (inspiringscotland.org.uk)

For more information on the Equality and Human Rights Fund, you can visit Inspiring Scotland’s website at: Equality & Human Rights - Inspiring Scotland

If you wish to find out more about work relating to deaf people and BSL within the Equality and Human Rights Fund, you can find out more at: Equality and Human Rights Fund – BSL Scotland Act 2015

We are unable to provide you with the progress reports from November 2014 and April 2015 as we do not hold this information. This is potentially due to our retention policy which deletes any official material older than 7 years.

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.

FOI 202400394857 - Information Released - Annex

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