Freedom of information response

1.         Who is the point of contact for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the Council? Can you provide their email address?

Community Development & Equalities Team diversity@thurrock.gov.uk

2.         Who is the point of contact for Internal and External Communications within the Council? Can you provide their email address?

Strategic Lead Communications CommunicationsTeam@thurrock.gov.uk

3.         Is your internal and external comms/content currently provided in BSL for the Deaf community?

No. However, customer support is available using BSL via British Sign Language (BSL) support | Thurrock Council

i) If yes, do you outsource these BSL translations to an agency?

NA

ii) If no, do you have a budget in place and plans to deliver this in BSL throughout 2023/24?

No

4.         Who is the point of contact for Learning and Development training for staff within the Council? Can you provide their email address?

Learning & Development Manager  mylearning@thurrock.gov.uk

5.         Are you currently providing Deaf awareness training to your Staff?

Our sensory team provide ad hoc training to social care staff, this includes hearing impairment. Several sessions were run last year and they are looking to repeat this year.  

Unfortunately we are unable to provide in full the information you have requested.  We do hold the information but an absolute exemption applies.  Personal Information (Section 40,2)

Personal data of any other person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test.

The names of officers working for the Council is personal data specific to them. It is therefore subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Information can be withheld if its disclosure would be likely to breach one or more of the Principles of the Data Protection Act. There is no prior expectation on the part of team Managers (or other officers working below the level of Director) that their names and job titles / positions would be published into the wider public domain under FOI. A disclosure made under FOI constitutes a publication to the world at large. We believe that to disclose this would be likely to breach the first Principle of the Data Protection Act by unfairly contravening their right to privacy and confidentiality in the work place. We have however supplied job titles and generic email addresses in order to answer your questions.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the council have managed your FOI request you can pursue an Internal Review by contacting us using the above email address. An internal review must be submitted within 40 working days of your original reply. Your request will be considered by a senior member of the Information Management Team who will update you with the outcome of the review.

If you remain unhappy following the outcome of your Internal Review you may wish to refer your case to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and details of this organisation can be found at www.ico.org.uk . Please be advised that the ICO will not consider your case until they have confirmation that you have already been through the Internal Review stage with the council.