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Adult safeguarding privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 22 May 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. 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.

Adult safeguarding – what it is and why it matters

Safeguarding means protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect. It is about people and organisations working together to prevent and stop both the risks and experience of abuse or neglect, while at the same time making sure that the adult’s wellbeing is promoted including, where appropriate, having regard to their views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding on any action. This must recognise that adults sometimes have complex interpersonal relationships and may be ambivalent, unclear or unrealistic about their personal circumstances.

Local authority statutory adult safeguarding duties apply equally to those adults with care and support needs regardless of whether those needs are being met, regardless of whether the adult lacks mental capacity or not, and regardless of setting, other than prisons and approved premises where prison governors and National Offender Management Service (NOMS) respectively have responsibility.

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 information e.g. your name, address, telephone number, date of birth
  • 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 inform an Occupational Therapy Assessment

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.

  • 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 you and your circumstances
  • information about relevant health and safety concerns
  • information about your needs and wishes

Collecting and sharing your personal information

While 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
  • family members and carers
  • internal teams, such as case management and finance, project teams
  • 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
  • partner agencies, such as volunteer organisations and statutory organisations
  • schools

Internal sharing will be on a need-to-know basis with names and addresses removed and the data aggregated to the project team so that other internal teams are unable to identify individuals.

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 will ensure they have the relevant agreements in place to be able to process your personal information.

Where you have indicated to remain anonymous when completing the adult safeguarding concern form (as the referrer), we will always do our best to ensure that you remain anonymous. However, we cannot guarantee anonymity as there may be circumstances where the information you provide, may need to be shared. When this happens, your information will only be shared where it is strictly necessary and proportionate and will be shared in accordance with data protection obligations governed by UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.

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 members of your family and support network
  • fully understand your needs:
    • information about you and your circumstances
    • information about your needs and wishes
    • information such as racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, your sexual orientation
    • your photograph
  • promote your health and wellbeing in partnership where applicable with the Kent and Medway Partnership Trust (KMPT), the NHS and North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT):
    • information about any health conditions or disabilities that may apply to you, including your mental health
  • arrange short/long term care solutions:
    • details contained in your care records and conversations held
  • liaise with agencies, companies and charities on your behalf:
    • relevant personal information held on our systems
  • endeavour to keep you safe from harm:
    • information about any health and safety concerns that may be relevant
  • process complaints and compliments regarding the services we have provided
    • details contained in your care records and correspondence received
  • request and arrange installation of specialist equipment for you:
    • information about any health conditions or disabilities that may apply to you
    • information about your needs and wishes
    • your name, address, telephone number, date of birth
    • contact details for members of your family and support network
    • your photograph
  • assess your financial contribution to your care:
    • information about your finances - bank details, income, benefits
  • work with you or your representative to create a Care and Support Plan:
    • details contained in your care records and conversations held
  • analyse the service that we are providing:
    • statistical reports output by our computer systems

The sharing of information facilitates a joined-up approach with partner agencies, to provide you with the best possible care and support. Sharing will, however, only be done where it is necessary or required by law.

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 sections AS5: AS5.1.1, AS5.1.2, AS5.1.3, AS5.1.4, AS5.1.5, AS5.1.6, AS5.1.7, AS5.1.8) which provides a breakdown of the retention periods relied on by Adult Services).

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

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

  • 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
  • Article 6(1)(c) - processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject

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 (statutory 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 data when relying on the condition 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 our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’ and record for any reasons deviating 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.

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 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
  • 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. 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 GDPR.

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

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.

The UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted on 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.