Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘Question 1 - How many Diversity and Inclusion officers did the NHS Business Services Authority hire between April 5, 2018 and April 5, 2023? Please state the full job title of each role, the annual salary of each role, the date of appointment for each role, and a brief description of each role. For clarity, Diversity and Inclusion officer refers to any job role which has in its title any of the following words, diversity, inclusion, equality, wellbeing and EDI.

Question 2 - In total, how many Diversity and Inclusion officers do the NHS Business Services Authority currently employ? Please state the full job title of each role, the annual salary of each role, and a brief description of each role. The definition of Diversity and Inclusion officer is the same as in the previous question.

Question 3 - Between January 1, 2018 and April 5, 2023, for what period of time has the NHS Business Services Authority been a member of the LGBT charity Stonewall? If the membership was terminated, on what date did your membership end? How much did you pay in membership fees and other expenses to Stonewall during the stated period? Please provide a date and reason for each payment.’

Your request was received on 5 April 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Question 1

We have not hired any “Diversity and Inclusion officers” during the period in question.

Fewer than 5 wellbeing and inclusion advisors (remunerated at Band 6) were employed.

Pay scales for Band 6 can be found at https://www.nhsemployers.org/articles/pay-scales-202223  

Please be aware that I have decided not to release further details of the number of employees, their role title and employment start dates as this information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act. This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) it is not fair to disclose staff’s personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress

b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of staff

Full details of the exemption can be found at

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

Role description: Wellbeing and Inclusion Role; to provide specialist advice and guidance relating to wellbeing and inclusion matters, working with complex data sources, supporting the reporting and analysis of matters arising from the data, making recommendations and undertaking actions to address challenges and barriers identified, providing training and signposting to colleagues and managers, ensuring compliance with best practice and legislative requirements.

Diversity and Inclusion Role; Provision of highly specialist advice and knowledge relating to diversity and inclusion across the organisation, undertaking required legislative and NHS/Public Sector mandatory reporting, analysis of data, publication of data and creation of strategy to address inequalities, managing the development and implementation of specific strategies and programmes, ensuring alignment with organisational and NHS requirements.

Question 2

No individual employee is specifically focused on the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion. The combined work in that area equates to 0.33% of 1 FTE role shared across several roles, remunerated at a band 8A.

Pay scales for Band 8A can be found at https://www.nhsemployers.org/articles/pay-scales-202223  

Role description: Responsibility for the governance of digital accessibility, compliance with legislation and public sector duties relating to digital and physical accessibility, undertaking legislative and NHS/Public Sector mandatory reporting relating to inequalities, analysis and publication of data, provision of specialist, expert advice and knowledge, creation of strategy, managing the development and implementation of strategies and programmes, ensuring alignment with organisational and NHS requirements.

Question 3 – January 2018 to December 2022

Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. The information you requested is available from web links:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-19192

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-28866

Question 3 – January 2023 to April 2023

£520 for the Stonewall Workplace Conference on 17 March 2023 (two attendees).

£1080 for the Trans Allies Programme on 30 March 2023 (three attendees)

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact nhsbsa.foirequests@nhs.net ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement:

“NHSBSA Copyright 2022” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.