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Adult Social Care Innovation and Partnerships privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 15 July 2024.

Kent County Council (KCC) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Who we are

KCC collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.

The Innovation and Partnerships Division (IPD) is made up of the Involvement and Information Team and the Digital and Innovation Team. IPD helps to build positive partnerships and connect closely with communities to ensure voices are heard, drive digital and technological innovation in social care, collaborate with people that draw on care and support to design public services and promote and adopt co-production and public involvement as standard practice so that peoples voices are represented.

The Involvement and Information Team focuses on seeking ways to actively encourage Kent residents to become more involved with the work of Adult Social Care, provide guidance on communication and engagement and co-production and provide advice and guidance for Adult Social Care. The Digital and Innovation Team support the implementation of the digital roadmap, spearhead innovation, foster external partnerships, and explore new funding avenues to keep adult social care at the cutting edge.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

As part of Innovation and Partnerships, we may process the following information when we work with you, or work on a project to help ensure Adult Social Care provides the best possible care and support or service to you.

We may process your personal information to gather feedback about local care and support and services provided. We may also process your information to keep you informed of updates to social care practice and opportunities to work in coproduction with us and our partners.

  • personal information such as your name, address, email address, telephone number
  • your image and/or voice via photograph, video or audio
  • your job title, or the organisation you work for or represent.

We also collect the following ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection) when you provide it to us:

  • your view and/or experiences about adult social care services or care and support provided
  • information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief
  • information about health conditions such as disabilities or caring responsibilities that may apply to you
  • information about you and your circumstances
  • information about relevant health and safety concerns.

We also obtain the same personal information listed above from other sources when you provide it to us as follows:

  • Your Voice network sign-ups
  • People’s Panel sign-ups
  • public involvement, engagement events and workshops
  • online and postal surveys that may include questions asking for personal information
  • recruitment interview panel sign-ups
  • feedback forms
  • personal stories and case studies
  • video, audio and other media consent forms.

We may also use your personal information for the KCC Adult Social Care and Health Awards. This includes the nominee’s name, the nominators name and their email address and their reason for their nomination. These Awards are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate some of the excellent and remarkable work undertaken by anyone working in the Adult Social Care and Health directorate. It could be the person who always knows how to pick the team up, the one who goes out of their way to help someone or the person who instinctively understands what is needed and gets it done. To make a nomination complete the nomination form.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • provide you with regular updates and information
  • create and maintain a distribution list for adult social care engagement
  • develop content for our web pages, Local Account, other adult social care literature or promotional materials
  • create attendance lists at all events and workshops
  • support the success of the Kent Adult Social Care and Health Awards
  • raise the profile of Adult Social Care and promote example stories and case studies of best practice and to help inform best practice
  • implement and maintain the Adult Social Care Directory for the purpose of informing the public of local groups, events and social care organisations.
  • drive forward digital and technological innovations in Adult Social Care to help find solutions to care and support and provide you with the best possible care and support.

We would love to hear from as many people as possible to ensure that we reach and hear the voices of people from diverse backgrounds. We try to monitor this to ensure that we continuously improve in this area.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal data

When we collect your personal data, we rely on the following legal bases:

  • 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’ when you register to join the Your Voice or People’s Panel and request to be notified of updates and alerts. You can opt out of these updates and alerts at any time by updating your registration profile.
  • 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.

When we collect your ‘special categories of personal data’, (such as health, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation) we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Article (9)(2)(a) - the individual has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.
  • Article (9)(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (statutory and government purposes).
  • Article (9)(2)(h) - processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.

We rely on the health or social care purpose condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article(9)(2)(h) to process your special category data.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category when relying on the conditions above:

  • We have an appropriate policy which explains how data protection principles are secured when using special category data.
  • This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 months after we cease to use it.
  • We have a retention schedule which explains how long data is retained.
  • We maintain a record of our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’ and record in it any reasons for deviating from the periods in our retention schedule.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary. The criteria for determining retention periods are statutory or other industry requirements, legal liability or other legal requirements and best business practice. To work out how long we need to keep your information for, we use our retention schedule. AS3.2.2 describes how long we keep your information if it is used as part of Involvement and Information Team purposes. Further information on the different elements are listed below. AS1-6 describes how long we keep your information if it is used as part of Digital Innovation Team.

Distribution lists

If you have subscribed to the adult social care distribution list, ‘Your Voice’ network or ‘People’s Panel’ as listed above, your contact information or preferences will be held in a secure database or contact list until such time that you remove your consent. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Video, audio and other media

Refer to the signed permission form in relation to the use of your image and/or voice captured via video, audio or other media such as photographs, as this will be retained as per the signed consent form. Videos that are captured by the Involvement and Information Team may also be stored online via our YouTube account; for more information read YouTube's Privacy Policy.

Information supplied to us in the form of videos, audio and other images will be securely held by us for three years unless you withdraw your consent prior to this point. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information. Once you have withdrawn your consent or your consent has expired, the information will be held in line with KCC's retention schedule before being securely destroyed.

Social media

As part of our social media activity, we may use information such as videos, audio, images and case studies to build content for our posts. We will use KCC’s X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram accounts to share this information. For more information you can read:

We will only use information that you have already consented for us to use and once the consent has expired, we will no longer use the information supplied in any future KCC Adult Social Care social media posts. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Sign in sheets for workshops and events

All sign in sheets will be held for 3 months from the date of the event; this will allow sufficient time for any follow up communications that are related to the event, workshop or training session attended. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Feedback meetings, feedback forms, surveys and case studies

Information supplied as part of feedback meetings, through feedback forms, surveys that include questions asking for personal information or case studies will be held by us internally for 3 years unless you withdraw your consent prior to this point. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information. Once you have withdrawn your consent or your consent has expired, the information will be held in line with KCC’s Data Protection Policy before being securely destroyed.

Who we share your personal information with

We may share your feedback and comments with services within the council who are responsible for the management of adult social care and with other health and social care teams, such as the Transformation and Delivery Team, when they are looking at innovative ways to improve services and respond to change. However, all the information and feedback that is shared will be anonymised.

We may share your personal information with other health and social care professionals and organisations to help personalise your care and ensure that you are receiving the best care and support possible. This will only be undertaken where there is a clear legitimate reason to share your information.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
  • ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
  • ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
  • object to direct marketing
  • make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • ask us to delete information we hold about you
  • have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
  • object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
  • object to how we are using your information
  • stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, email the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Your right to withdraw your consent

Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time.

You can do this by notifying the Involvement and Information Team in writing either by:

  • emailing makingadifference@kent.gov.uk
  • posting to Involvement and Information Team, Adult Social Care and Health, Innovation and Partnerships Division, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone ME14 1XX.

On receipt of your notification, we will stop using your information in future publications, but it may continue to appear in publications or social media posts already in circulation.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.