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HR

Sickness Absence – 2024

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I would like to make a Freedom of Information Act request for the following information

Please provide:
– What is the distribution of sickness absence days amongst your organisation’s workforce by percentile?
– A breakdown of sickness absence in your organisation in 2024 by grade and function
– Details of what measures, interventions and support has your organisation provided to reduce sickness absence.
– A copy of your HR policies relating to sickness absence

If possible I would welcome this in a CSV file or similar (except for the policies which I would welcome in PDF or word ideally)

If any of the above needs clarification I would be more than happy to provide clarification.

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Employment Tribunal Claims

I am submitting this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

1. How many active Employment Tribunal claims are currently ongoing against your Trust and what are the projected legal costs of these cases?

2. How many Employment Tribunal claims has your Trust had in the last five years and what was the total cost of these cases.

I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as required by law.

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Sexual Misconduct

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1. Can you provide a breakdown of sexual offences which have been reported in your trust for the last three financial years (2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25)

2. Can this be broken down by whether the person making the accusation is a member of staff, a patient, or a member of the public.

3. How many staff members at your trust have been disciplined over the last three financial years (2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25) in relation to a sexual offence?

4. How many staff members at your trust have been dismissed over the last three financial years (2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25) in relation to a sexual offence?

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Contracts for ID Cards, Lanyards and Access-Control Supplies

Please treat this as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I would like the following details about your current arrangements for:

– staff ID cards (both printed and blank)
– ID card printers and consumables
– staff, contractor & visitor lanyards
– any other access control supplies.

Please provide:
– The name of the current supplier or suppliers.
– The contract reference number.
– The total value of the contract, including any permitted extensions.
– The contract end date and any extension period that may be used.
– A description of the service or goods provided by each supplier.

If no formal contract is currently in place for any of these items, please provide for the most recent complete financial year:

a) The supplier name or names, Companies House registration number where available, and website address where available.
b) The total spend in pounds sterling.
c) A brief description of the items purchased.
d) The purchasing route used, for example purchase card, purchase order or framework call off.

This request excludes physical access control hardware, installation & repair/maintenance costs.

If the data is held electronically, please supply it in a searchable format such as CSV or XLS. Please do not supply images or unsearchable files.

If part of the information cannot be provided within the statutory cost limit, please supply the information that can be provided and advise me how I might refine the request.

If your organisation does not directly purchase or contract for these items, please state which organisation or department is responsible and, if possible, provide contact details.

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Recruitment Drive Exercise

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Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I would like to request the following information from the trust from the last five financial years:
1. The number of staff who were sent to a foreign country to facilitate recruitment drives (to address shortages as set out as part of the NHS Long Term Plan).
2. The total cost to the trust of each recruitment drive exercise including flights and accommodation
3. The city and country that were visited as part of the exercise
4. The type of staff it was hoped would be recruited
Please can the information be broken down by year, for the last five financial years (2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25)
Please limit the search to just those where the bills for the recruitment were paid in any of the last five financial years.

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Parental Leave Data

I am writing to request the following information relating to parental leave under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000:
• The total number of employees who took shared parental leave (SPL) in the last five
financial years: 2020/21; 2021/22; 2022/23; 2023/24; and 2024/25.
• In the same period, the number of employees who took:
• Maternity leave
• Paternity leave
• Any internal policy documents or guidance issued to staff regarding shared parental leave
entitlement, including any updates in the past five years.
• Whether enhanced pay is offered during shared parental leave, and if so, how it compares
to maternity and paternity leave packages.

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Use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in Trusts

For the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2025 (or as far back as records are held, if full data for this period is not available):

1. Total number of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) — also referred to as confidentiality clauses or settlement terms within COT3 agreements or other settlement agreements, entered into with current or former staff members by your organisation.

2. Of those NDAs, please provide a breakdown of how many were associated with settlement agreements relating to:
a) Complaints of bullying or harassment
b) Complaints of discrimination (related to any protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010)
c) Whistleblowing or the raising of protected disclosures
d) Other reasons (please specify if available)

3. Total amount of money paid out under all settlement agreements or COT3s that included an NDA during this period.

4. The highest individual settlement amount paid out under a settlement agreement or COT3 that included an NDA during this period.

5. If available, please also provide:
A breakdown by staff group or job role (e.g. nursing, medical, administrative, etc.) A breakdown by department or service area A breakdown by type of complaint (if not already provided above) If the information is not held in this level of detail, please provide whatever level of detail is recorded.

If any part of this request is likely to exceed the cost limit, please prioritise questions 1–3 and advise how I might reasonably narrow the scope of the remaining questions.

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Staff with Purple Passports/Support for Staff with Long Covid

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I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
1. How many staff members currently employed by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust have declared a disability via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) or any other internal systems?
2. Of these, how many are:
o Issued a Purple Passport (or equivalent), or
o Have been granted reasonable adjustments ?
o How many Purple passport holders have long covid if any ?
3. Does the Trust operate a Purple Passport scheme (or similar system) to support disabled staff in accessing adjustments? If so, please provide a brief description.of what adjustments have been granted and indicate numbers gaining this status

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Spiritual, religious and/or chaplaincy services

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As part of a piece of work I am undertaking to review the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy services offered by NHS England, I am contacting you to ask for the following information to please be provided.

1. How many whole-time equivalents are employed in the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s) and what are their bandings? Please differentiate between staff on substantive and temporary contracts, as well as staff working in the service on bank or agency contracts.

2. What are the typical core hours of the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s) on offer? How are these service(s) provided over the week (i.e. weekdays only, seven days a week, etc)?

3. What type of support (such as regular activities, events, or gatherings) is offered by the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s)? Please differentiate this between support offered to patients, support offered to family / friends, and support offered to staff members.

4. What on-call or out-of-hours provisions are made by the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s) at your Trust? Please differentiate between provisions offered by staff members employed by the Trust, and provisions offered by external contractors / arrangements.

5. What support is offered to the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy services(s) by external organisations? For instance, what contracts are held by the Trust for this / these service(s) and who are these contracts with?

6. On average, how many service users are supported by the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s) in a week? Please take an average of service users supported between January and December 2024.

7. What is the overall satisfaction for the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s) offered by your Trust? Please provide the overall satisfaction for the period January 2024 to December 2024.

8. What supervision, if any, is provided to staff working in the spiritual, religious, and / or chaplaincy service(s)? Please identify whether this is provided by your Trust or by an external provider, and the average annual cost for this provision.

9. Please provide a contact name and contact email address if there should be any additional queries relating to this Freedom of Information request.

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Neonatal Leave and Pay/Lease Cars

I am wondering if you could please help me with a couple of benchmarking queries?

Neonatal Leave and Pay
• Have you got a family leave policy to share for this guidance and how you will process the leave for colleagues?

Lease Cars
• We are looking to add to our current guidance around scenarios where colleagues have a lease car and then for example, go on maternity leave, return on reduced days which could put them below the national minimum wage which could revoke the car. This could also apply to any substantive employees who adjust their hours for example. How do you support colleagues in this situation?

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Workforce Systems

I would like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act relating to Workforce systems
Please respond to the following questions
1. Which software provider does the Trust use for medics rostering software
2. Which software provider does the Trust use for “direct engagement” management of temporary medical staff
3. Which software provider does the Trust use for the management of temporary medical staff
4. Which software provider does the Trust use for master vendor management software
5. What was the annual cost for the Trust’s medics rostering software in the last financial year
6. What is the contractual end date of your current medics rostering software
7. What is the contractual end date of your current direct engagement software
8. What is the contractual end date of your current temporary medical staff management software
9. What is the contractual end date of your current master vendor management software

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Salary Sacrifice Benefit

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1. Does your organisation offer salary sacrifice benefits* to staff? If yes, please state the name of the supplier, contract start and end dates.
*salary sacrifice benefit refers to an arrangement where employees agree to give up a portion of their pre-tax salary in exchange for non-cash benefits (e.g childcare, cycle to work schemes) a. Supplier Name b. Contract start date (dd/mm/yy) c. Contract end date (dd/mm/yy)

2. Does your organisation have an external Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)*?
* employee assistance programme refers to an employee-paid confidential service that offers employees support and advice on issues affecting their wellbeing and performance, both personal and work related.
a. If yes, who is the provider?

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Very Senior Manager (SM) Grade

I would like to know how many people the trust employs in the Very Senior Manager (SM) grade please.
This should cover the current financial year, 2024-25 and 2023-24.
Please also include their job titles.

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Allegations of antisemitism, islamophobia and racism

– Please provide the number of persons who work or have worked at your NHS Trust who have been the subject to complaints on the basis of allegations of (1) antisemitism (2) islamophobia (3) racism against Palestinians and/or Arabs since 7 October 2023.

– For each of the above persons who works or has worked at your Trust, please confirm:
(i) whether the complaint(s) is/are based on allegations of antisemitism or islamophobia and/or racism towards Palestinians and/or Arabs;
(ii) the name of any organisation that submitted the complaint;
(iii) whether the complaint arises from the person’s actions at work and/or outside work;
(iv) whether the complaint is being or has been dealt with under informal or formal disciplinary procedures;
(v) the content of the complaint (deleting any personally identifiable information)
(vi) the outcome of any disciplinary hearing;
(vii) any sanction which has been applied against the person.

– Please provide the definitions used by your NHS Trust for (i) antisemitism, (ii) islamophobia, (iii) racism towards Palestinians and/or Arabs.

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Complaints Submitted by Midwives, Nurses and Doctors

I am writing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information about complaints submitted by the midwives, nurses and doctors working at your trust.

From 1st January 2023 up to and including 15th April 2025, can you please tell me the following:

The number of grievances submitted by midwives, broken down into the nature of the complaint, including but not limited to:

Bullying and harassment work relations terms and conditions of employment health and safety.
Please break this down by year and month.

For “bullying and harassment” and “work relations” (above) please provide us with the trust’s summary of each grievance submitted by midwives and, where relevant, the outcome. Where necessary, please remove identifying details.

The number of grievances submitted by doctors. Please break this down by year.

The number of grievances submitted by nurses. Please break this down by year.

If this request is at risk of triggering the s12 cost exemption, please advise us on how we can amend the wording of our request to align with the trust’s categorisation and/or filing conventions for grievances and complaints.

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NDAs and Settlement Agreements

I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025:

1. How many Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), also referred to as confidentiality clauses were signed with staff (current or former) by your organisation?
2. Of those NDAs, how many were part of settlement agreements related to:
a) Complaints of bullying or harassment
b) Complaints of discrimination (on any protected characteristic)
c) Whistleblowing
d) Other reasons (please specify if possible)
3. What was the total amount of money paid out in settlement agreements that contained NDAs?
4. What is the highest individual settlement amount paid in this period as part of a settlement agreement that contained an NDA?

Please include any available breakdowns by department, staff role, or type of claim where possible.

If it is not possible to provide all of the information requested, please provide as much as you are able to within the appropriate cost and time limits.

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Pay-outs for Nurses following Employment Tribunal

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I would like information on employment tribunal (ET1) claims involving nursing staff at your organisation.

Please answer the following 4 questions under the Freedom of Information Act and see example answers as a guide.

For each financial year between 2020 and 2025 (or the latest available date), please provide yearly figures for the below:

1. The number of employment tribunal claims bought by nurses, trainee nurses and nursing associates against the trust. [example answer: 2020 – 0, 2021 – 2, 2022 – 0, 2023 – 1, 2024 – 1]

2. The outcome from each claim [E.g. withdrawn, won, lost- e.g: In 2020, 1 was in favour of the claimant, 2 were in favour of the respondent, 1 was discontinued/settled out of court]

3. How many cases each year led to an employment tribunal ruling the organisation must pay costs to the claimant, and how much was paid [example answer: 2020 – 1 case, £0 paid; 2021 – 2 cases, £12,000 paid; 2022 – 3 cases, £0 paid; 2023 – 0 cases, £0 paid, 2024 – 3 cases, £0 paid]

4. If possible, please break down each claim by type [e.g. public interest disclosure, unfair dismissal, discrimination]

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Complaints Regarding Staff Member’s Uniforms/Appearance

I would like information on complaints received by your hospital relating to staff member’s uniforms/appearance.

Please answer the following four questions under the Freedom of Information Act and see example answers as a guide.

Please could you provide the following information:

1. What was the total number of complaints received by the Trust in the financial year between April 2023 – March 2024, and in the financial year from April 2024 to date [example answer: 2,034 between April 2023 – March 2024, 1,999 between 1 April 2024 – present day]

2. How many of those complaints related to the uniform, appearance or dress code of staff members (including but not limited to concerns about tattoos, hair colour, piercings, political or religious symbols/statements, hygiene or adherence to uniform policy)? Of those, how many complaints related to nurses. [example answer: 12, of which 3 related to nurses]

3. What did the complaints with regards to the uniform, appearance or dress code specifically relate to? [example answer: nurse had multiple visible tattoos]

4. What was the outcome of the complaints? [example answer: upheld, not upheld, partially upheld]

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Doctors Ethnic Groups – Bands – Complaints

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1. How many doctors work for your trust? By the term doctor, I mean those who treat patients, not those with a PhD, and/or who are not clinicians.
2. Break these into their ethnic groups and their corresponding grades e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you ethnically monitor your staff. If, for example, positions have fewer than five doctors in their grade and ethnicity, please use an asterisk and explain there are fewer than five.
3. Provide a key to explain your grading system e.g. lowest to the highest band or vice versa.
4. In the following years, how many complaints did you receive about doctors under MHPS during the following years? 1 Jan-31 Dec 2021; 1 Jan-31 Dec 2022; 1 Jan-31 Dec 2023; 1 Jan-31 Dec 2024.
5. Please break these down into ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data for the corresponding years. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.
6. Of these complaints, how many resulted in your investigating them? Please list these in the corresponding years.
7. Please break these down into ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data for the corresponding years. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.
8. Of these investigations, how many resulted in a sanction, adverse judgement or other disciplinary action? Please be clear about what the sanction was. Please list these in the corresponding years.
9. Please break these down into ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data for the corresponding years. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.
10. Of all complaints how many resulted in a doctor being suspended during the inquiry? Please list these in the corresponding years.
11. Please break these down into ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data for the corresponding years. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.
12. Of all the complaints how many did you refer the doctor to the GMC? Please list these in the corresponding years.
13. Please break these into ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data for the corresponding years. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.
14. During your considering complaints, what is the average length of your investigations?
15. Please give the average length of your considering a complaint in terms of ethnic groups e.g., white, black, Asian or whichever way you record your data. If your numbers are fewer than five, then use an asterisk.

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297-2024

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Request 1
In the previous 36 months on how many occasions have you engaged the services of an Executive Search recruitment company?i.e. a recruitment service for senior staff on a retained fee basis.

Request 2
If the response to Request 1 is positive what fees, either in percentage or a pounds and pence figure, where paid by your organisation to the supplier.

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303-2024

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Please provide the latest inclusive language guide document for staff and other documents used for internal diversity training

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280-2024

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1. Please confirm has your Trust adopted the Just Learning Culture in handling of concerns following receipt of Dido Harding’s letter that was sent to all Chairs and Chief Executives of NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts dated 23 May 2019.

2. Does your MHPS Procedure set out an informal process to deal with concerns pertaining to conduct/ capability of medical and dental staff, if so please provide details.

3. Please provide details of what training and support is provided by your Trust to Case Investigators and Case Managers when dealing with MHPS cases.

4. Please can you confirm if your Trust has a Decision-Making Group and if so, please can you confirm who sits on this group/how this is constituted and its remit?

5. The number of cases of medical and dental staff that were handled and resolved via a Just Culture approach and informal process.

6. The number of cases of medical and dental staff that were subjected to a formal MHPS investigation.

7. The number of medical and dental staff that have been formally excluded under MHPS and the duration of the exclusion.

8. Where medical and dental staff have been formally excluded under MHPS please provide a breakdown of whether this was on grounds of a) a need to protect the interests of patients or other staff pending the outcome of a full investigation, and/or b) the presence of the practitioner in the workplace was likely to impede the gathering of evidence during the investigation?

9. How many medical and dental staff have been the subject of a formal process in relation to concerns over conduct and performance after they have made a protected disclosure (whistleblowing) following concerns over patient safety or other issues?

10. Please provide the number of medical and dental staff that were placed on restricted duties and the duration of these restrictions.

11. Please provide a breakdown of how many of these formal MHPS investigations were:
a. Resolved with no further action due to the concerns not being upheld
b. Resolved via an agreement to proceed through a disciplinary fast track process which avoided the need to proceed to a formal hearing
c. Proceeded to a formal hearing – conduct or capability (provide breakdown)
d. Other outcome – provide details

12. Of the cases that proceeded to a formal hearing please confirm how many of these resulted in:
a. No disciplinary sanction – because the allegation/ concerns were not upheld
b. No disciplinary sanction – but ended with a recommendation for additional training/remediation/support
c. A disciplinary sanction – please confirm the level of this sanction (e.g. written warning/final written warning/dismissal)
d. Number of medical staff who appealed the disciplinary sanction and the outcome
e. Other outcome – provide details

13. Please provide length of time from start to finish of each MHPS

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169-2024

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How many days of sick leave, recorded as being due to “Anxiety/Stress/Depression/Other Psychiatric Illnesses”, in line with NHS recording of sickness absence, were taken by pharmacy staff in your trust in each of the following years:
2024/25
2023/24
2022/23
2021/22
2020/21
2019/20
2018/19 
2017/18

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194-2024

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I would like to know the difference in spending for Occupational Health (OH) and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). As part of this I am trying to get clarification on what constitutes OH and EAP.
1) Could you please provide me with an understanding of how your Trust defines OH and EAP respectively? What elements/criteria do you measure to track the provision of each?

2.) Could you also please provide a breakdown of how much the trust spends on OH and EAP respectively from the total spending figures you have provided in your initial FOI response?

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