Children's Social Care: Special Guardians Support

Privacy Notice

Why do we collect and use this information?

Hampshire County Council is the Data Controller for the purpose of collecting and using information from you, in order to carry out our statutory functions around supporting Special Guardians, once the Special Guardianship Order has been granted.

We hold this personal data securely and use it to undertake our statutory functions as required under the The Special Guardianship Regulations 2005, Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations 2016 to:

  • assess and evaluate our services
  • inform future service planning
  • evaluate and improve our policies on children’s social care
  • provide support to Special Guardians (such as training opportunities, access to support groups and access to a regular newsletter)
  • complete statutory returns to central government agencies, such as the Department for Education
  • undertake wider County Council statutory duties in support of children’s education and welfare
  • ensure compliance with our obligations under the accuracy principle of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (Article (5)(1)(d)), making sure our records are up to date.

The following sections provide further detail around the information we process setting out what allows us to do this (lawful basis), who we may share it with, how long we keep it for (the retention period), alongside identifying any rights you may have and who to contact if you think we’re not handling your information in the right way.

The categories of information that we collect, hold and share

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

  • personal information (such as name,, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, language)
  • special category characteristics (such as ethnicity, disability, religion and medical information)
  • family network and relationship information
  • information relating to whether you are a smoker
  • employment information
  • information relating to assessments and approvals for suitability to foster children, including references
  • previous or current involvement with Hampshire County Council’s or Other Local Authorities Children’s Services, including Fostering, Social Care and Early Help.

The lawful basis on which we use this information

We collect and use the information ensuring that we comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018) requirements for processing through:

  • Article 6(1)(e) – 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) – 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; and
  • Sch.1, Pt.2, 1 – Substantial public interest conditions, for processing under the DPA2018.

These articles under the UK GDPR and the DPA2018 are supported by the following specific legislation:

  • Sections 10, 11 of the Children Act 2004
  • Special Guardianship Regulations (2005) (as amended by the Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations 2016)
  • Special Guardianship statutory guidance (2017) for local authorities
  • The Local Authority Social Services Act 1970
  • The Equality Act 2010.

Under this lawful basis we do not require your consent to process this information but we are required, through this privacy notice, to ensure you are fully informed of why we are collecting this information and what we will do with it.

Please note that no automated decision making (decisions taken without a person involved) occurs for any parts of these activities controlled by the County Council. The County Council does use profiling as part of the service but only as established under the statutory process.

Storing and securing data

The information provided to us will be held within the County Council’s Children’s Social Care Case Management System (CMS). The information held within our Children’s Social Care CMS will be kept in line with our retention schedule and then disposed of as appropriate. Our Children’s Social Care CMS is hosted by the County Council in secure data centres based in the UK.

Forms sent electronically (paper forms will be scanned to create an electronic record) will be stored within the County Council’s Document Management System (DMS), with any paper versions being destroyed. The file will be linked to the record created in our Children’s Social Care CMS by the use of a reference identifier. The information held within the County Council’s DMS will be kept in line with our retention schedule and then deleted as appropriate. The County Council’s DMS is hosted by the County Council in secure UK based data centres, which are on site.

The County Council takes its data security responsibilities seriously and has policies and procedures in place to ensure the personal data held 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 by our processing.

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

Who do we share information with?

We do not share information with anyone unless there is a lawful basis that allows us to do so. Any information shared will be done so on the basis that it is necessary, relevant and proportional for the task being undertaken.

We share data with Ofsted on a statutory basis as part of their annual collection of data from Local Authorities (LAs). All data is transferred securely and held by Ofsted under a combination of software and hardware controls which meet the current government security policy framework.

Depending on the individual circumstances of each situation, we may have to share this information with other teams within the County Council to fulfil other duties and powers to support our work. These might include our Data Protection Team (for personal data incidents) and/or other Social Care teams (supporting welfare, safeguarding and corporate parent functions).

Requesting access to your personal data and your rights

Under data protection legislation, individuals have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information, or someone you have responsibility for, please contact the Children's Services Department's Subject Access Request (SAR) Team. You also have the right to:

  • prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
  • object to decisions being taken by solely automated means
  • 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.

Please note that under the UK GDPR, there is also a right to erasure but the right to erasure does not provide an absolute ‘right to be forgotten’. Where the data being processed is for the purpose of ‘performing a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law’ (Article 6(1)(e))’, this right does not automatically apply.

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

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.