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Disabled Children and Young People’s Service privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated in August 2023.

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 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

‘Disabled Children and Young People’s Service’ is provided under the umbrella of Children, Young People and Education and comprises a range of services that offer specialist support to disabled children, young people and their families. We work in an integrated way with other adults and children’s services teams in KCC and with partner organisations to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for children, young people, adults and families in Kent.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of providing specialist support for a child, young person and their family we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • personal information for example; name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender, NHS number, Port-Reference, Home Office number
  • details of family relationships, including those of extended family
  • information about finances
  • information on care leavers for example; education status, employment status, type of accommodation
  • administrative information for example;, dates of court orders, dates of assessments, appointments.

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
  • information about health conditions, disabilities or carers responsibilities that may apply to you
  • reasons for support for example; what is working well, what you are worried about
  • assessment and plan information for example; further details of issues or challenges, how we are going to work together to bring about changes required
  • Information on episodes of being looked after for example; placement information
  • information gathered during child or adult protection processes
  • information relating to post adoption support for example; decisions made
  • outcomes for looked after children for example; such as whether health and dental assessments are up to date, strengths and difficulties questionnaire scores and personal education plans.

We also obtain personal and special category information from other sources as follows:

  • details of any young person reported missing from home, from the police
  • referral and involvement information from partner organisations
  • attendance and exclusion information (such as sessions attended, number of absences, reasons, details to support statutory processes), pupil characteristics, and unique pupil number, from your child’s school
  • involvement with other KCC children’s or adult services teams from our existing records
  • court decisions relating to our statutory legal duties
  • support the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

We will obtain personally identifiable data from other sources in order to identify people who are vulnerable to the coronavirus, may require support as a result of the coronavirus, or meet eligibility to be prioritised for vaccination based on the priority groups set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. This includes personal information about individuals who do not meet our normal support criteria, but have had their normal support from family or friends reduced or interrupted. This information will support the delivery of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme.

We will obtain information from the Government Digital Service (this may include data from the NHS and other departments), and we will also obtain it from providers of care homes, nursing homes, and domiciliary care services. We will additionally receive information from district and borough councils, voluntary and carer organisations.

How long your personal data will be kept

We keep your information securely in line with the retention periods shown below, after which time it is archived or securely destroyed, unless we are required by legal reasons to retain records for longer than the stated retention period.

Category

Retention period

Children and Young People with a Child Protection Plan

Date of birth +40 years

Children and Young People who have been in the care of the Local Authority (Looked After Children and Care Leavers)

Date of birth +75 years

If the child/young person dies before the age of 18 records will be retained for 15 years from their date of death.

Adoption

Date of birth +100 years

Private Fostering Arrangements

Date of birth +75 years

Private Foster Parents where parents made own arrangements for child to be fostered

Last contact with the Private Foster Parent +10 years, or date of death of Private Foster Parent + 2 years

All other records relating to Children and Young People Records of children and young people who don’t fall into any of the above categories, including Children in Need, and general papers where a file has not been opened

Date of birth +25 years

Register of Persons Posing a Risk to Children and those cautioned or convicted of offences against children

75 years from the date of the caution/conviction

Adult Social Care

See sections AS1-6 in KCC’s retention schedule excluding AS2.1, AS2.2, AS4.4, AS4.5, AS4.9, AS4.10, AS4.11, AS4.12.15, AS4.12.16, AS4.13, AS5.2, AS6.1 which provide a breakdown of retention periods relied on by Adult Services.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • safeguard and support disabled children and young people, and to monitor their progress
  • enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
  • plan and provide the most appropriate level of support to you and your family
  • liaise with Service Providers regarding the care of Looked After Children and Care Leavers
  • support you to access relevant support and advice, services and groups
  • gather your feedback from reviews to evaluate and quality assure the services we provide, and improve our policies on social care
  • use your feedback to inform future service provision and the commissioning of services
  • inform you about forthcoming events/activities and our commissioned services, if you have agreed for us to do so
  • request and arrange installation of specialist equipment for you if required to meet your needs
  • assess your financial contribution to your care when you become 18
  • equality monitoring, to help us to commission and manage services effectively, helping us to meet our Public Sector Equality Duty
  • support the delivery of the Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.

The sharing of information facilitates a joined up approach with partner agencies, to provide you with the best possible care and support.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following legal bases:

  • Article 6(1)(a) - the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose
  • Article 6(1)(c) - processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject
  • 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)(f) - processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity
  • Article (9)(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (‘safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk’, and ‘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
  • Article (9)(2)(j) - processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

We rely on the health or social care purposes and research etc conditions from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article(9)(2)(h) and Article (9)(2)(j) to process your special category data.

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

  • 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.

Obtaining your feedback about the support you and your family has received is subject to your consent.

Who we share your personal information with

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

  • teams within Kent County Council working to improve outcomes for children and young people
  • commissioned providers of local authority services (such as Independent Foster Care Agencies, Children’s Homes, Semi-Independent Accommodation Providers, Supported Lodgings Providers, Residential Special Schools and Secure accommodation)
  • schools and colleges
  • partner organisations signed up to the Kent and Medway Information Sharing Agreement, where necessary, which may include health visitors, midwives, district councils, housing providers, police, school nurses, doctors and mental health workers
  • government departments including the Department of Education, Department of Work and Pensions, and The Home Office
  • Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children’s or Local Area services)
  • Care Quality Commission (CQC)
  • voluntary organisations, such as The Share-Foundation (who run the Department for Education’s Junior ISA scheme for looked after children and young people)

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

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

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.

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 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. 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 Information Commissioner's Office on individuals’ rights under UK 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 or write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

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.

For further information read our privacy statement.