Children’s Social Care: Residential Children’s Homes – Privacy Notice

Introduction

Hampshire County Council (HCC) are responsible for or contribute to the management of Children’s homes across Hampshire, which provide support and care for children in need from across the country. To do this, HCC is required to collect and use your personal information.

This document has been created to help explain why we collect this information, how long we keep this information for, what allows us to use the information, who we would share it with and what rights you have in relation to this information.

Why do we collect and use information about you?

HCC will collect and use information to support and care for you whilst you attend the Children’s Home. We may collect this information either directly from you or it may be shared with us by someone else who is working with you.

We will use the information we collect for the purposes of:

reviewing your needs to ensure that placing you within the children’s home is in your best interests
providing necessary support to address your needs and keep you, your family and the other residents within the home safe
deciding on whether it is appropriate for you be discharged from the home
providing appropriate medical or pastoral care
responding to any enquiries or concerns you may have whilst attending the home
keeping an up to date and accurate record of your attendance within the home
communicating any important updates regarding your care to the local authority or organisation that placed you
keeping colleagues within other organisations who also work within the home updated with the support being provided
obtain support and provide updates to from other organisations working with you to deliver wider services
monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the quality and impact of our services
providing appropriate training and learning to members of staff to ensure good practice is observed at all times
complying with the submission of statutory returns.

How long do we keep information for?

Records are kept securely and will be held by us for a specified length of time in accordance with our retention schedules, depending on the type of service that we have provided. If you were or are currently placed in the care of HCC, we will keep your records for 100 years from your date of birth.

The categories of information that we collect, hold and share

The following personal and special category information could be processed over the course of the placement:

your personal information (such as name, address, date of birth, contact details) and information about your characteristics (such as ethnicity, gender, religion, language)
your health information to support your medical care such as prescription information or any medical conditions you may have or be at risk of developing
information relating to your education
information about your family’s background so we can establish how best to keep you safe
CCTV footage containing your image to comply with our legal obligations to co-operate with any relevant investigations and keep you, other residents and staff safe
information from professionals and agencies about you or your family in support of your care.

The lawful basis on which we use this information

Under Data Protection Legislation we must have what is known as a ‘lawful basis’ for being able to use your personal information. The lawful basis that HCC will mostly use is called ‘Public Task’. This is where the law requires us to deliver certain services or support to you.

Sometimes we must collect certain information about you which is considered more sensitive and is known as ‘Special Category’ information. This includes information such as your ethnicity, religion, or health information. If we process this type of information, we need another lawful basis from both the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA 2018). We have listed the specific lawful basis we use under UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 we use below:

Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR – the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law
Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR – necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of Union or Member State law which is proportionate to the aim pursued and which contains appropriate safeguarding measures
Sch.1, Pt.2, paragraph 6 and 18 – Substantial public interest conditions, for processing under the DPA 2018 – condition 6 where processing is required for ‘statutory and government’ purposes and condition 18 – where processing is required to for the ‘Safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’.

These articles under the UK GDPR and the DPA 2018 are supported by specific legislation, including:

Section11 of the Children Act 2004
Sections 17, 20, 22(3), (4) and (5), 27 and 83 of the Children Act 1989
Regulation 4, Care Planning Regulations 2010
Regulations 7, 13, 33 and Schedule 1, para 1 Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010
Regulations 36, 37 and 38 of The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015
The Equality Act 2010.

By using the ‘Public Task’ lawful basis, this means we do not need your permission (your consent) to use your information, but we do need to tell you what we are doing with it. This is what this privacy notice sets out to do.

However, should any activity we undertake not have a ‘Public Task’ lawful basis, then we will explain this to you and inform you as to which lawful basis is being used, which may be to seek your clear and explicit consent.

Storing and Securing Data

Information provided to us will be held within HCC’s social care case and document management systems. The County Council’s social care case management systems are hosted in secure data centres and no processing occurs outside of the UK.

HCC takes its data security responsibilities seriously and has policies and procedures in place to ensure your personal data is:

prevented from being accidentally or deliberately compromised
accessed, altered, disclosed or deleted only by those authorised to do so
accurate and complete in relation to why we are processing it
continually accessible and usable with daily backups
protected by levels of security ‘appropriate’ to the risks presented.

HCC also ensures its IT Department is certified to the internationally recognised standard for information security management, ISO27001.

Who do we share information with?

HCC may work in partnership with other organisations such as the NHS or other local authorities to provide Children’s Home facilities. This may include us providing access to our systems to ensure that professionals have all the relevant information they need to support you and make sure the right services are made available to you.

HCC may also directly share information with other organisations and agencies that are supporting you. This could include GPs, Health services, schools/academies/colleges, other Local Authorities, voluntary or charitable organisations).

Your rights

You have the right to:

prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
object to decisions being taken by solely automated means
request access to records
in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

Further information

The above information is the specific privacy notice for this service. For more information about your rights in relation to your personal data, see the County Council’s general privacy notice.

You have some legal rights in respect of the personal information we collect from you. See our Data Protection page for further details.

You can contact the County Council’s Data Protection Officer by email [email protected].

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.