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Kent Adult Social Care and Health (Kent Shared Lives Host) privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 6 April 2022.

Kent County Council 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

Kent County Council (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. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Kent Adult Social Care and Health will work with you to promote your health and wellbeing, designing services together that both suit you and meet your needs. Kent aims to be a county of opportunity, where aspiration rather than dependency is supported and quality of life is high for everyone. We will work to understand and break down the barriers that stop this from happening.

Kent Shared Lives approves, supports and pays Shared Lives Hosts, and provides them with ongoing support, guidance and training to ensure they are fully skilled to be effective in their role.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of working with you, we may collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

Personal data

  • personal information e.g. your name, address, telephone number, date of birth and finance information
  • contact details for members of your family and support network
  • information about your finances, e.g. bank details, income, benefits
  • photographs, e.g. to help with the assessment and matching processes
  • information held on references that we will obtain
  • training records and action plans
  • information relating to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and any provided response
  • information about you and your circumstances, e.g. background history, education and employment.

We recognise that personal information concerning criminal convictions and offences is not special category personal data, but is a very sensitive type of information which can only be shared in narrow circumstances.

Special categories of personal data

  • information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief and your sexual orientation
  • information about health conditions or disabilities that may apply to you
  • information about any health and safety concerns that may apply to you
  • information about any health and safety concerns that may be identified following the application of the Health and Safety Checklist.

Collecting and sharing your personal information

In the course of working with you, we may collect information from, or share it, with some of the following third parties (non exhaustive list):

  • advocates, deputies, legal power of attorney
  • borough councils, housing associations and landlords
  • cabinet members
  • Care Quality Commission (CQC)
  • central government
  • county councillors
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
  • external providers, e.g. Supported Living Service
  • family members and carers
  • internal teams, such as case management, finance and fostering
  • Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board (KMSAB)
  • Kent Safeguarding Children Board (KSCB)
  • legal representatives, such as solicitors
  • Local Government Ombudsman
  • MPs
  • nearest relative
  • NHS providers, such as GPs and hospitals
  • other professionals, such as other Shared Lives Schemes
  • partner agencies, such as volunteer organisations and statutory organisations
  • Cantium Business Solutions (DBS check).

The Shared Lives Service carries out equalities monitoring internally. Data is taken from forms and anonymised so that it is not identifiable; reports are then shared with the CQC. Original forms containing equalities data are destroyed.

The Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board (KMSAB) is a statutory service which exists to make sure that all member agencies are working together to help keep Kent and Medway's adults safe from harm and protect their rights.

This data sharing enables us to personalise your care and ensure that you are receiving the best support possible.

Each organisation listed above will ensure they have the relevant agreements in place to be able to process your personal 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.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • create a secure and comprehensive record of all of the work that we do with and for you:
    • your name, address, telephone number, date of birth
    • contact details for support hosts and NOK
  • process your Shared Lives application and report for panel approval:
    • collect references
    • completed DBS checks
    • Health and Safety
    • background history
    • health and finance declarations
    • report on suitability to become a Shared Lives Host.
  • process complaints and compliments regarding the services we have provided:
    • details contained in records and correspondence received, e.g. from a host, family, member of the public
  • analyse the service that we are providing through monthly returns, key performance indicator (KPI) meetings and equalities monitoring:
    • statistical reports output by our computer systems
  • record monitoring and support visits
    • check records maintained about the placements and you
    • report on updates on personal information, training records and action plans
    • maintain financial information, including invoicing and receipts.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary. To work out how long we need to keep your information for we use our retention schedule. See section AS2.3.3 which provides a breakdown of the retention periods relied on by adult services. The criteria for determining retention periods are statutory or other industry requirements, legal liability or other legal requirements and best business practice. In exceptional cases, records may be retained beyond this period on the authorisation of a district manager.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on the following as the lawful bases on which we can collect and use your personal data:

  • Article 6(1)(b) - processing is necessary for the entering into and performance of a contract.
  • 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)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk, equality of opportunity or treatment).
  • 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 or criminal convictions data when relying on the conditions above:

  • We have an appropriate policy for lawful processing which explains how the data protection principles are secured when using special category information. 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 Processing Activities and record any reasons we deviate from the periods in our retention schedule.

As we have a statutory basis for collecting your personal data, we do not need to ask for your permission to collect and share it, however we will only ever share your data on a basis of need, in line with legislation and will work transparently with you at all times.

If you do not provide your data, it will limit the effectiveness of the services and support that we are able to offer you.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks

We rely on your explicit consent for the processing of any criminal conviction and offence personal information, for the purpose of carrying out the DBS check. If you provide us with this information we will only process it (including sharing the information with our partners) to the extent that it is necessary for that purpose.

You may withdraw your consent at any time. If you do withdraw your consent, no further personal information will be collected and the existing personal information shall only be retained in accordance with KCC’s data protection policy. If you do withdraw your consent we may not be able to take your application to become a host further.

NHS and care services

We have processes in place for considering requests for data disclosures for purposes beyond direct care which is consistent with national data opt-out policy. Our organisation is compliant with the national data opt-out policy.

To find out more about the NHS’ wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, visit the NHS website. If you do choose to opt out, you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have a number of rights which you can access 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
  • withdraw your consent at any time.

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. Please note, 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 the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.

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

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.

Who to contact

Please 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.