Privacy notice for Children’s Social Work Workforce Census 

What do we use the information for?

We collect, process and hold workforce data in order to provide our services effectively and for the local authority’s operational use.

• To enable the development of a comprehensive picture of the workforce and how it is deployed
  
• To improve the management of workforce data across the sector
  
• To inform the development of recruitment and retention policies   
  
• To enable individuals to be paid
  
• To enable monitoring of selected protected characteristics.

We also use information to improve our services so that they are more appropriate to people’s requirements.  We recognise that your personal information is important to you, and we take our responsibilities for ensuring that we collect and manage it proportionately, correctly and safely very seriously.

What information do we hold and use?

We collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name and date of birth)
  
• Unique reference numbers (such as Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) number)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, sex, religion)
  
• Contract information (such as start date, full-time equivalent (FTE), role)  
  
• Work absence information (such as number of days missed due to sickness absence)
  
• Qualification level.

This list is not exhaustive, to access the current list of categories of information we process please see the complete guidance on the government website. 

Children’s social work workforce census guidance (external website) 

On what grounds do we use the information?

We process personal data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) - processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract
• GDPR Article 6(1)(c) - processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.

We process special categories data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 9(2)(b) - processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

How do we collect this information? 

We may collect information in the following ways:

• iTrent system
• From line management via email.

Who do we share your information with?

The Department for Education (DfE) collects personal data from educational settings and local authorities via various statutory data collections. We are required to share information about our workforce with the Department for Education (DfE) for the purpose of those data collections, under Section 83 of the Children Act 1989.

We may also disclose your information to others, but only where this is necessary either to comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by Data Protection legislation. We would only ever provide data at an aggregated level which would not all be identified.

The reasons why we may share your data with other public bodies are as follows:

• To support our duties under the Children Act 1989
• To monitor and improve our performance and delivery of services
• For children’s safeguarding information which aims to improve outcomes for vulnerable children
• Where otherwise permitted under the General Data Protection legislation.

We will only disclose your sensitive or confidential information to a third party, if we are legally required to do so, or where we have good reason to believe that failing to share the information would put you or someone else at risk of harm.

We will not pass your personal information to external organisations for marketing or sales purposes or for any commercial use without your prior expressed consent.

How long do we store it and is it secure?

The children's social work workforce census has retention schedules in place to ensure that information is only held for as long as it is needed. We will not keep your information for longer than is required to by law.  Your information will be disposed of in a controlled and secure manner in accordance with the council’s Records Management and Data Quality Policy. The council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and accessed only by staff directly involved in your case. 

For information on how long your information will be held visit the retention page.

What rights do you have?

The rights that you have depend upon the grounds upon which we collected your information. All of the rights you could have are outlined on the data protection rights page. 

In most cases, people who have been involved with the children’s social work workforce census will be covered by the following rights:

• The right of access - you are entitled to see the information the service holds about you 
• The right to rectification -  we will amend information accordingly, if any information that the service holds about you  is incorrect 
• The right to restrict processing -  you may wish to limit how we use your data 
• The right to object - in addition to the right to limit the use of your data, you also have a right to object to the use of your data for certain actions. 

To exercise any of your above rights, please visit the data protection rights pages for more information.

Where can I find out more?

If you want to know more about how the council uses information, your rights or have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we request that you raise your concern with us in the first instance; contact details are available on the general privacy information page. Alternatively, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest and they handle public concerns regarding organisations information rights practices. 

Information Commissioner’s Office (external website)

When was this privacy notice last updated?

We will continually review and update this privacy notice to reflect any changes in our services, feedback from customers, and to comply with any changes in the law. This privacy notice was last updated on 11 December 2020.