Privacy notice for Provider Services

What do we use the information for?

Business management and commissioning provider services collect, process and hold your personal information in order to provide our services effectively. 

• Residential care
• Community support services (Homecare)
• Day opportunities
• Lifeline and Responder service.

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 may collect and process the following information:

• Personal information (including full name, full residential address)
• Location data (including postcode and telephone number) 
• Unique reference numbers (including NI number and NHS number)
• Characteristics (such as ethnicity, sex, religion, disability) 
• Health data (including health conditions, medications and treatments).

On what grounds do we use the information?

Provider services collect and lawfully process your personal information under the following: 

• Care Act 2014
• Care Quality Commission (Registration Requirements) Regulations 2009
• Mental Capacity Act 2005
• Mental Health Act 2007

We process personal data for the following reasons:

• GDPR Article 6(1)(a) – the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;
• GDPR Article 6(1)(b) - 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 the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller
• GDPR Article 6(1)(d) – processing is necessary in order to protect vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person
• GDPR Article 6(1)(e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

We process special category data for the following reasons: 

• GDPR Article 9(2)(c) - processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent
• GDPR Article 9(2)(f) - processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity
• GDPR Article 9(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject
• GDPR Article 9(2)(h) - processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or pursuant to contract with a health professional
• GDPR Article 9(2)(i) - processing is necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety of health care and of medicinal products or medical devices, on the basis of Union or Member State law which provides for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the rights and freedoms of the data subject, in particular professional secrecy.

How do we collect this information?

We may collect information in the following ways:

• Paper, electronic or online forms
• CCTV
• Use of audio monitoring equipment
• Email
• Letter
• Telephone
• Face to face, with one of our employees, or one of our partners.

Who do we share your information with?

We may 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 may share it with other public service bodies including the NHS, the Care Quality Commission, the police and other local authorities.

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

• To ensure health professionals have up-to-date information on health conditions and any medications you are taking.
• To enable emergency services to respond effectively to any emergency that you are affected by.

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?

Business management and commissioning have 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.

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 on 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 will have the following rights:

• The right of access – you are entitled to see the information that we hold about you
• The right to rectification – we will amend information accordingly, if any information 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 you data for certain actions
• The right to erasure/ right to be forgotten - in certain circumstances, you may be able to ask for some of the information we hold to be deleted. The service has determined that all requests to permanently delete a service user record will be dealt with on an individual basis.

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

Where can I find out more?

If you would like 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 concerns 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 29 January 2021.