This privacy notice explains:
- how personal information is going to be used
- what it is used for
- who it might be shared with and why
- how long it is kept.
The information you provide helps us to provide community-based social work, care management services and occupational therapy support to adult residents of West Sussex.
Personal and special category data
The categories of personal data we are processing are:
- name, gender and date of birth
- marital status
- occupation
- address and telephone number
- ethnicity and language spoken
- religion
- physical or mental health condition
- support provided by any carers or others
- communication needs (if interpreter is required)
- GP details
- sexual orientation
- involvement with other services
- criminal/police involvement
- National Insurance details
- NHS number
- accommodation status.
Data Controller
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) complies with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is registered as a ‘Data Controller’ with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Reg. No. Z6413427).
You can find details for the WSCC Data Protection Officer (DPO) on our Privacy Policy.
We ensure that your personal data is accurate, processed fairly and lawfully, kept secure and retained for no longer than is necessary.
The legal basis for processing personal data
In certain situations, we may use your information under Article 6 and Article 9 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation without seeking your consent.
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
- for compliance with a legal obligation
- to protect someone’s life.
If you or any other person is considered to be at risk of significant harm, people working with you will have a duty of care to share the information with the relevant services without consent.
This information is needed to comply with:
- Care Act 2014
- Health and Social Care Act 2008
- Care Quality Registration Regulations 2009
- Children's Act 2004
- Children and Families Act 2014
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended by the 2007 Act)
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards 2007
- Housing Act 2004
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1997
- Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009
- the support plan
- other contracts and agreements setting out the terms and conditions of services provided to you by the adult social care department.
The legal basis for processing special category data
- Article 9(2)(b) - for carrying out obligations in the field of social protection law.
- Article 9(2)(c) - to protect the vital interests of you or someone else.
- Article 9(2)(f) - where necessary for legal claims or court.
- Article 9(2)(g) - for reasons of substantial public interest.
- Article 9(2)(h) - provision of health and social care or to manage social services.
- Article 9(2)(j) - Processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, or scientific and historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
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.
How we use your personal information
Our Privacy Policy determines how we use personal data. We use it specifically to:
- ensure that we meet all of statutory duties including:
- assessment of need (evaluating your health and care needs)
- provision of services
- making sure your support is safe and effective
- working with others who provide you with support to ensure you get the best possible service
- assessing financial eligibility for services.
- deliver a range of preventative services, information and signposting
- inform you about alternative community support
- account for our decisions and investigate complaints
- promote independence and wellbeing
- protect vulnerable adults from harm/identify and protect those at risk of harm or abuse and ensure compliance with safeguarding adult policies and procedures
- plan the best onward care to meet your present needs
- check and, if needed, update your customer record details
- provide administrative purposes and customer service
- calculate personal contribution (if any) to the cost of care services
- contact you to take part in independent research or surveys and ask your opinion about our services to ensure we understand how we can improve our service to you
- anonymise statistics to plan our services and informing market development
- anonymise statutory returns to central government
- provide person-level data to the NHS as required the under the Collection of Client-Level Adult Social Care Data (3) Directions 2023.
Who we share your information with
We use a range of organisations to either store personal information or to help deliver our services to you. Sometimes we have a legal duty to provide your personal information to other organisations, for example the court service or HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
We may also share your personal information with other organisations that enable us to meet our reasons for lawful processing.
We may pass data to:
- other council departments including:
- Housing
- Environmental Health
- Older People's Service Team
- Disability Service teams
- Adult Safeguarding teams
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards service
- Hospital Discharge team
- Occupational Therapy teams
- Day Services teams
- Adult Mental Health Service teams
- Carer’s Support services
- Finance teams
- Complaints team
- Legal Services
- safeguarding boards
- NHS Digital
- private and public healthcare agencies
- commissioned partners/contractors who undertake our work
- authorised partner organisations that we commission to provide care and support
- district and borough councils
- third party organisations we have a legal duty to pass information to, such as the police and/or Department for Work and Pensions and anti-fraud agencies
- the courts (Court of Protection, Office of Public Guardian and Magistrates)
- government departments who administer welfare benefits and council support benefits
- statutory agencies, such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and emergency services
- Department for Transport, for the statistical monitoring of Blue Badges
- voluntary and community organisations
- support and advice services
- advocacy services
- other local authorities
- the prepaid card provider.
We share information to provide health and social care professionals directly involved in your care access to the most up-to-date information about you. We will do this by sharing appropriate information between health and social care services at the time of patient contact. This provides for earlier intervention, coordinated and safer care.
We may seek consent if we are able to offer additional services which we believe are of benefit to you. This will be clearly communicated to you. We will only share your details with these organisations if we have your consent. We will not share your information otherwise.
We will not share data with third parties for marketing purposes.
See our Privacy Policy if you require more information about how we use this data.
Collection of Client-Level Adult Social Care Data
The council is required to provide the NHS with person-level data under the Collection of Client-Level Adult Social Care Data (3) Directions 2023. Further information about the Directions, including the purposes of the processing is available on the NHS Digital website.
The council is not required to obtain consent to provide the data and the national data opt-out does not apply to data provided under the Directions.
Once it receives the information, NHS Digital becomes the data controller in relation to processing the personal data.
National data opt-out
The national data opt-out was introduced on 25 May 2018, enabling patients to opt out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes.
Patients can view or change their national data opt-out choice at any time by using the online service at NHS - Your NHS data matters. Compliance with the national data opt-out is mandatory for the Health and Social Care Sector from March 2020.
How long we keep your personal data
Personal data will not be retained for longer than is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are collected.
The council is currently reviewing and updating its retention policies. See our records management page for published retention schedules.
Your rights
See our Privacy Policy for more information on your rights.
Complaints
See our Privacy Policy for information about making a complaint.