Severely learning disabled adults: recording of gender and/or sex
Case reference FOI2025/00311
Received 13 February 2025
Published 3 April 2025
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, which relates to care provided or commissioned for severely learning disabled adults, specifically those who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender or any preference as to the sex of their care staff
1. Does your social care management system (the database or other systems your organisation uses to record personal data for disabled adults in connection with your duties under the Care Act 2014) include a field for the characteristic of gender?
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
b. Please provide any documents, such as notes of meetings, internal correspondence etc, recording how you determined what should and should not be included in the defined set of responses
c. How is it populated for adults who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender
2. Does it include a field for the protected characteristic of sex?
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
b. Is it mandatory to populate this field with some value, or can it be left void/completely blank?
3. Do you have policies or procedures that have the objective of ensuring that users of your services (commissioned or provided directly) of the female sex is who require assistance with intimate care receive this from carers of the female sex. If so, please provide copies.
4. Please provide copies of any policies specific to individual Equality Act protected characteristics (excluding marriage and civil partnership) and the unprotected characteristic of gender of care workers and/or service users, i.e any policies specific individually to
a. gender reassignment/trans identified care workers and/or service users
b. the age of care workers and/or care workers and/or service users
c. the disability of care workers and/or service users
d. the pregnancy of care workers and/or service users, but there is no need to provide copies of HR employee maternity leave policies
e. the race of care workers and/or service users
f. the religion or belief of care workers and/or service users
g. the sex of care workers and or service users
h. the sexual orientation of care workers and/or service users
i. the non protected characteristic of gender of care works and/or service users Please provide the information in the form of an email.
Response
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information, which relates to care provided or commissioned for severely learning disabled adults, specifically those who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender or any preference as to the sex of their care staff
1. Does your social care management system (the database or other systems your organisation uses to record personal data for disabled adults in connection with your duties under the Care Act 2014) include a field for the characteristic of gender?
A: Yes
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
A: AGENDER
BI-GENDER
DEMI-BOY
DEMI-GIRL
FEMALE
GENDER-FLUID
INTERSEX
MALE
NON-BINARY
THIRD GENDER
TRANS FEMALE
TRANS MALE
UNKNOWN
b. Please provide any documents, such as notes of meetings, internal correspondence etc, recording how you determined what should and should not be included in the defined set of responses
A: Herefordshire Council does not hold this information. Our case management system was updated, and new gender categories were added. The supplier made the changes in collaboration with two consultation groups of customers and trans and non-binary people who informed and shaped the decisions and development. Once these new categories had been introduced on the system, the council adopted them. The council does not hold any further information regarding what it determined should or should not be included in the defined set of responses.
c. How is it populated for adults who lack capacity to express a view on their own gender
A: The Service Area would speak with those that know the person and confirm how they viewed their gender prior to having lost capacity and then use that response.
2. Does it include a field for the protected characteristic of sex?
A: Yes
a. Are there a defined set of responses from which to select, and if so, what are they?
A: Yes
MALE
FEMALE
UNKNOWN*
INTERSEX
*We avoid the use of ‘unknown’ due to compatibility issues with externally linked data management systems.
b. Is it mandatory to populate this field with some value, or can it be left void/completely blank?
A: This is a Mandatory Field. This can not be left blank
3. Do you have policies or procedures that have the objective of ensuring that users of your services (commissioned or provided directly) of the female sex is who require assistance with intimate care receive this from carers of the female sex. If so, please provide copies.
A: The council does not have a separate policy or procedure. A request of this nature would be included in an individual’s care support plan, which is delivered by the home care provider and its staff.
4. Please provide copies of any policies specific to individual Equality Act protected characteristics (excluding marriage and civil partnership) and the unprotected characteristic of gender of care workers and/or service users, i.e any policies specific individually to
a. gender reassignment/trans identified care workers and/or service users
b. the age of care workers and/or care workers and/or service users
c. the disability of care workers and/or service users
d. the pregnancy of care workers and/or service users, but there is no need to provide copies of HR employee maternity leave policies
e. the race of care workers and/or service users
f. the religion or belief of care workers and/or service users
g. the sex of care workers and or service users
h. the sexual orientation of care workers and/or service users
i. the non protected characteristic of gender of care works and/or service users Please provide the information in the form of an email.
A: We don’t hold this information requested in 4a-i, the equalities information of care workers would be held directly by their employer. We commission care providers and the provider is the employer not the Council.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.