Safeguarding - Privacy notice

Privacy Notice for Safeguarding

We are committed to meeting our statutory and moral duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults at risk who come into contact with our services and activities. In addition, we are bound by certain specific safeguarding laws that exist to protect individuals.

Processing activity - we will process personal information relating to referrals to Kent County Council if we believe you and/or a child in your household:

  • suffers or is at risk of abuse or neglect by the action(s) or omission(s) of another person(s)
  • exhibits signs of self-neglect eg: failing to attend to basic needs, such as personal hygiene, appropriate clothing, feeding or tending appropriately to any medical conditions

Information requirements - our processing activities may include:

  • name
  • address and telephone number
  • gender
  • nationality
  • ethnic origin
  • religion
  • date of birth
  • school attendance rate
  • any declared diagnosed disability
  • unique identifiers (such as National Insurance Number/NHS or hospital number))
  • medical and welfare details
  • GP/support worker details
  • carer details
  • other occupants in your home/next of kin/family members
  • other professionals known to the individual (such as District Nurse, Mental Health Worker, School)
  • reasons for making the referral, outlining the issues, concerns a, identified risks and reasons why support is needed
  • details of the person alleged to be responsible for the abuse or neglect

Lawful bases - our lawful bases for processing your personal information are:

UK GDPR Article 6(c):

  • our legal obligation(s) under the Children Act 1989
  • our legal obligation(s) under the Children Act 2004 and Working Together to Safeguard Children (Statutory Guidance)
  • our legal obligation(s) under the Care Act 2014 and Care and Support (Statutory Guidance (2014))

and

UK GDPR Article 6(e):

  • necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us, in service to the legislation referred to above

Reasons for processing - some of the information that is collected and shared is classified as special category personal data - UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) and DPA 2018, section 10(3) & Schedule 1,Part 2, para.6 - processing is necessary and justified by the legislation referred to above.

This is processed for reasons of substantial public interest under the laws that apply to us (see above) where this helps to meet our broader social obligations such as where it is necessary for us to fulfil our legal obligations and regulatory requirements. We have a Data Protection Policy that sets out how this information will be handled.

Data sharing - your information may be obtained from:

  • council departments
  • housing associations
  • external service providers
  • bailiffs
  • contractors
  • elected Councillors and/or Member of Parliament
  • private sector landlords
  • friends and relatives

We share your personal information with Kent County Council.

We may rely on a number of exemptions, which allow us to share information without needing to comply with all the rights and obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018. Please refer to the Kent and Medway Information Agreement for further details on our sharing arrangements.

Retention period - we keep your personal information for the minimum period necessary:

  • referrals to Kent County Council - unless a tenant, immediately destroyed following acknowledgement by Kent County Council – if a tenant, retained for life of the tenancy
  • referral central log  (anonymised) - 2 years from date of entry

All information will be held securely and disposed of confidentially.

Anonymisation - your personal information may be converted ('anonymised') into statistical or aggregated data in such a way that ensures that you cannot be identified from it. Aggregated data cannot, by definition, be linked back to you as an individual and may be used to conduct research and analysis, including the preparation of statistics for use in our reports.

Right to object - where processing your personal information is required for the performance of a public interest task (see our lawful bases above), you have the right to object on ‘grounds relating to your particular situation’. We will have to demonstrate why it is appropriate for us to continue to use your personal data.

Changes to this Privacy Notice - we review this Privacy Notice regularly and will place updates on our website.

Please refer to our Corporate Privacy Notice for further details of how we process your personal information and for details on your additional rights.

GDPR Privacy Notice Safeguarding