Your records

It’s essential that we keep accurate details about the work we do and the people we deal with. This helps us provide as efficient a service as possible, ensures we comply with the law, and, very importantly, means we can be held accountable for what we do.

What we record

When you ask for social care services we ask you for information about yourself and your situation, and we keep what you tell us in your ‘file’, which is kept partly on computer and partly as a paper record.

Details of discussions about the help you need are added to your file as they happen, and so are the agreed plans for your care, details of services that we arrange for you, and our regular reviews of what you need.

Copies of letters from or to you and records of phone calls are also stored in your file – and if anyone else, such as your doctor, gives us information about you, this is added as well.

What we use the information for

The information you give us about yourself and your situation is used specifically to ensure that you get the help you need.

We use all the information we gather to provide statistics that help us plan our services – and we also give the government a summary of what we’ve done each year.

Storing information

The information we keep about you – both the paper file and the computer record – is kept very securely, and only authorised members of staff can see it.

Giving other people information about you

If we can deal with your request for help ourselves, we do not need to pass information about you to any other organisation. But if it would be to your benefit to have help from another organisation as well (for example, a company providing help at home), we may want to pass your details (or some of your details) on to them. This saves you having to explain things again to someone else and makes it quicker for you to get the help you need.

And in an emergency, as you will appreciate, it is often vital that we can pass details on to whoever is dealing with the situation.

We ask you to sign a form agreeing that we can share relevant information about you with colleagues who work for other organisations

Seeing your records

It is our policy to discuss with you what we are putting on your records. This means that you can check when we record information that it is accurate and that you agree with it.

However, you also have the right to ask at any time to see any part of your records, and if you want to do this we normally ask you to fill in our Subject Access Request Form  590kb

If you are currently getting services from us, you should first speak to the person you usually deal with, and they can answer any questions you have, and will tell you whether you need to fill in the request form.

If you are not getting services from us (for example, if you received services in the past, or you are applying on someone else's behalf to see their records) you will need to complete the request form.

To get a form please phone our Records Management Section: 023 8068 7300 or download a Subject Access Request Form  590kb

You should note that in some circumstances there may be information in your file that we cannot give you.

You will normally be able to see your records within 40 days of our getting a fully completed request form, together with the necessary identification documents as specified on the request form ,and a cheque for the fee if this applies.