Trust HQ
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Brockworth
Gloucester
GL3 4AW
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E-mail: freedomofinformation@ghc.nhs.uk Website: www.ghc.nhs.uk
DATE: 24/09/2021
Freedom of Information Request – Ref: FOI 211-2122
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request. Please find our response below.
1. Do you currently have:
• A specific local AIS policy? • An accessibility policy which references the AIS? Yes. Please see attached as a separate PDF document. 2. How many of the following have you received since 1st April 2019 regarding provision of accessible information:
• Complaints? • Compliments? Zero.
3. How many of the following items have you issued to patients since 1st April 2019 under an AIS request?
• large print letters • braille letters • audio files • email letters • text messages Unfortunately, we do not collate this information in the manner which you have asked.
4. What engagement do you have with people with a visual impairment regarding your implementation of the AIS? We invited Alun Davies, Engagement Manager West. from Sight Loss Council & Thomas Pocklington Trust to meet virtually. with the Partnership and Inclusion team on 1st September 2021 to have an opportunity to increase our awareness around accessible information and develop a link to work on any other issues relating to the Trust’s services and accessibility to patients with a visual impairment.
Partnership and Inclusion team are in attendance at Partnership Board for Visual Impairment and work in partnership with PBVI to support implementation of AIS in our Trust.
5. What proportion of your staff has received formal accessibility training in the last year? Information about the Accessible Information Standard is included in the Trust’s mandatory Equality and Human Rights training. Our current compliance level for this training 97.3%
6. What percentage of current online material has been officially checked for compliance with the Government’s Digital Accessibility Regulations? Our main website is monitored by the Silktide Index, and has been since last September when the accessibility standard for public sector websites came in. Our main website is currently rated ‘Good’ however we have had numerous conversations with Silktide as we have made the changes they recommended and our site isn’t ranking as highly as we’d like or expected. We are also taking the following steps to improve our accessibility:
Removal of non-essential PDFs PDFs aren’t accessible and can’t be read by screen reading software. There are steps that can be taken to improve the accessibility of PDFs and all PDFs need to have an accessibility check run on them before uploading. We are doing this for all new PDFS sent to us for uploading. If they don’t meet the accessibility check, we are giving guidance to teams and asking them to make improvements. We are working through existing PDFs and removing non-essential ones and including the content they contain within the webpage they relate to. This is quite a task as there are lots of documents that teams have moved over from the previous sites but also with Covid we have had to provide more information digitally. Accessibility recommendations
Each month Silktide put recommendations on steps we can take to improve our accessibility. We work through these each month, and put fixes in place where we can. Regular review of our accessibility tools against industry standard
We have a set of accessibility tools built in to our website which can be accessed by clicking the accessibility icon in the top left of all our pages. We review these regularly to see if there are ones we can add to ensure our site is as accessible as possible.
Should you have any queries in relation to our response in this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request and wish to ask us to review our response, you should write to:-
– Head of Legal Services / Associate Director of Corporate Governance Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
Edward Jenner Court
1010 Pioneer Avenue
Gloucester Business Park
Brockworth
GLOUCESTER GL3 4AW
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E-mail: —
If you are not content with the outcome of any review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO. for further advice/guidance. Generally, the ICO will not consider your case unless you have exhausted your enquiries with the Trust which should include considering the use of the Trust’s formal complaints procedure. The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Freedom of Information Officer
On behalf of Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust
FOI Request
Sent: 27 August 2021 13:18
To: Freedom of Information
Subject: Freedom of Information request - NHS Accessible Information Standard
This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. If unsure, please contact ghcit@ghc.nhs.uk
-------------------------Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust,
I have a series of questions in relation to your Trust policies and approach on the NHS Accessible Information Standard AIS. and particularly how this impacts on blind and partially sighted patients and service users.
1. Do you currently have:
a. A specific local AIS policy?
b. An accessibility policy which references the AIS?
2. How many of the following have you received since 1st April 2019 regarding provision of accessible information:
a. complaints?
b. compliments?
3. How many of the following items have you issued to patients since 1st April 2019 under an AIS request?
a. large print letters
b. braille letters
c. audio files
d. email letters
e. text messages
4. What engagement do you have with people with a visual impairment regarding your implementation of the AIS?
5. What proportion of your staff has received formal accessibility training in the last year?
6. What percentage of current online material has been officially checked for compliance with the Government’s Digital Accessibility Regulations?
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