PN029 - Service Provision for Children and Family and Adult Services Privacy Notice

Torfaen County Borough Council is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services. This Privacy Notice is designed to give you information about the data we hold about you, how we use it, your rights in relation to it and the safeguards in place to protect it.

TCBC Service Area: Social Care
Work area: Adult Services
Contact details: eunice.jones@torfaen.gov.uk
Work area: Children and Family Services
Contact details: eunice.jones@torfaen.gov.uk
Privacy Notice Name: PN029 - Service Provision for Children and Family and Adult Services

Data controller: Torfaen County Borough Council, c/o Civic Centre, Pontypool, NP4 6YB

If you wish to raise a concern about the handling of your personal data, please contact the Data Protection Officer on 01495 762200 or email dpa@torfaen.gov.uk

Torfaen Social Care hold information in relation to you and your family in order to process requests for care and support needs. This information is required by the Council in order to deliver the services you are requesting and to carry out its statutory functions.

How will my information be used?

To assess and plan for you and/or your family’s needs
To ensure you and your family are kept safe
To share with others working with you and your family
Some of the information held about you will be shared with Welsh Government
To improve and plan our services

Who provides your data to the Council?

The personal information we process is provided to us directly by you.

AND

We also receive personal information indirectly from others who know you, for example Health, Education, Police. The Council puts measures in place to protect the privacy of individuals throughout this process.

How does the Council collect this information?

By phone
Face to face meetings
Video calls
Video conference / meetings including video recording and transcription
Manual forms
Electronic forms
Electronic recording of minutes
Email

What information does the Council collect about you?

We collect personal information such as:

name
address
date of birth
sex
gender
ethnicity
disability status
telephone number
email Address
financial information
lifestyle information
contract and employment records
Your personal “voice print” for the purpose of meeting transcriptions
Your participation in meetings

Social Care may also obtain and hold more specific information including:

Details about your needs in all areas of your life (e.g. care & support)
Details of family members and relationships in and outside of your household
The names and contact details of your close relatives and/or carers
Details of any other services you are receiving
Assessments and reports
Information other organisations (e.g. health, schools or care homes) tell us to help us understand your situation and needs
Recordings of any visits or contact
Details of your Mental health and capacity
Deprivation of Liberty
Details of your Physical health
Details of your Wellbeing
Details of your Personal outcomes
Criminal record
Restorative Justice
Allegations of abuse or neglect towards you
Allegations or concerns raised regarding your conduct or safeguarding concerns from you about others

We also keep a record of any contact with you, your family or anyone that knows about you. We record all information with your consent given by you or someone with parental responsibility. If we or others are concerned about you or your family, we are allowed to collect information without your consent. We do this under safeguarding or other social care legislation.

Why does the Council process your personal data?

Under Article 6 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

(e) We need it to perform a public task

Please note, we may ask for consent to engage in a service, however, consent is not the lawful basis we rely on to process any of your personal data unless otherwise stated.

Special categories of personal data

We collect the following special category data:

personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin
personal data revealing political opinions
personal data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs
data concerning health (social care and health records)
data concerning a person’s sex life
data concerning a person’s sexual orientation
biometric data (voice print)

We collect this under Article 9 of the UK GDPR.

AND

Where we collect criminal data, this is processed within the Council under Article 10 of the UK GDPR.

DBS record
Criminal record

Who has access to your data?

Your data is shared internally only with the appropriate staff where it is necessary for the performance of their roles. Anyone that helps Social Care with any information has to agree to keep this information confidential.

Your data may also be shared externally with partner organisations to enable the Council to process your request and comply with our legal obligations. These may include, but not be limited to:

Department for Work and Pensions and other Government departments
Registered Social Landlords
Police
Social Care Providers
Third Sector providers
Welsh Government
Health
Welsh Ambulance Service Trust
Social Care Wales
Education
Family / Criminal courts
Other local authorities
Auditors
External regulators
Health & Safety Executive
Secure Estate – Prisons
National Prosecution Service
Your employer (if you are a professional / volunteer subject to allegations of abuse / neglect)

Apart from where previously stated, we do not pass your details to third parties unless we are lawfully required do so.

Is the Data transferred out of the UK?

In some cases, these recipients may be outside the UK. This means your personal data may be transferred outside the EEA to a jurisdiction that may not offer an equivalent level of protection as is required by EEA countries. If this occurs, we are obliged to verify that appropriate safeguards are implemented with a view to protecting your data in accordance with applicable laws.

The section below gives specific details of what information is shared with Welsh Government.

Some of the information held about you will be shared with Welsh Government. This will help them to carry out research to improve the care and support provided to you and other people in Wales. The information will be shared lawfully and will only be used by the Welsh Government for research in support of official business.

What information will be shared with Welsh Government?

We will share some personal info about you, such as:

Date of birth
Gender
Ethnic group
Disability status
Other health information
Basic details of the care or support provided to you
Information from your school about your education

However, we will not share:

Your name
The names of your family and/or carers
Your address

How will my information be used by Welsh Government?

To help with planning services for people in Wales
To measure how well services are being provided so that they can be improved
To help conduct research into people’s well-being – this may involve combining it with other information e.g. health or education data

However:

No action will be taken in relation to you personally
You will not be identified in any reports
Information will never be shared or combined in a way that could lead to you being identified

What are my rights relating to the use of my data?

Right to be informed (this notice)
Right to access the personal data Welsh Government holds on you
Right to rectify any inaccuracies in that data
Right to (in certain circumstances) object or restrict processing of your information
Right to (in certain circumstances) for your data to be ‘erased’
Right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection.

Is my information secure?

The information shared with Welsh Government will be sent and stored securely. It will only ever be shared with others under careful controls, to ensure it is only used in the ways listed here.

Is collecting the data lawful?

Welsh Government are collecting this data using powers set out in legislation and to ensure we are able to fulfil public functions and statutory requirements.

How long will they keep the data?

Welsh Government will keep the data until the child / adults 25th birthday. After this point the data will be anonymised and continue to be used only for statistical purposes.

Further information

For a full description of the information being shared with Welsh Government; your rights and the relevant legal information; and complaints, please write to us via the address below:

Data Collection Team
Knowledge and Analytical Services
Welsh Government
Floor 4 South, CP2, Crown Buildings
Cathays Park, Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Email: stats.pss@gov.wales

How does the Council keep your data secure?

The Council has internal policies in place to ensure the data it processes is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. Access to this data is restricted in accordance with the Council’s internal policies and in compliance with the UK GDPR.

Data will be stored securely in:

secure corporate network
secure IT database - Welsh Community Care Information System (WCCIS)

Where the Council engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions. These third parties are also under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate measures to ensure the security of data. This is detailed in our contract documentation and is monitored through our contract compliance process.

How long does the Council keep your data?

The Council will hold your personal data only for the period that is necessary and will follow organisational and Local Authority standards in this area. At the end of the retention period the Council will securely destroy or dispose of the data in line with retention schedules.

Those times are listed below:

Adoption - 100 years
Looked After Children - 75 years
Safeguarding Children - 35 years
Safeguarding Adults - 15 years
Care and Support (part 4) - 10 years
Foster Carers - 75 years
Statutory Supervision - 25 years
Death - 10 years
Convicted of Offences Against Children - 125 years
Adults with/without Disabilities - 8 years
Older Persons - 8 years
Occupational Therapy - 8 years
Community Meals - 6 years
Mental Health - 10 years
Grants - 8 years
Residential Home files - 25 years
Families First - 10 years
Transcription data - once outputs are completed
Voice Prints - once outputs are completed
Video Recordings of meetings - once outputs are completed

Are we making automated decisions/profiling with your data?

No. Social Care is not using your data for automated decision making or profiling.

However, we may undertake some manual data profiling to enable production of statistical information or data that informs service development.

Your rights

You have a number of Rights you can exercise:

Access - to obtain a copy of your data on request
Rectification – to require the Council to change incorrect or incomplete data
Object, Restrict or Delete - under certain circumstances you can require the Council to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
Data portability – to receive and/or transmit data provided to the Council to other organisations (this applies in limited circumstances)
Withdraw your consent at any time (where consent has been given)
To know the consequences of failing to provide data to the Council
To know the existence of any Automated Decision-making, including profiling, and the consequences of this for you.
To lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Information Commissioners Office)

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact: Social Care at SocialCareInformationRequests@torfaen.gov.uk

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (Wales), 2^nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH. Telephone 0330 414 6421 or e-mail Wales@ico.org.uk

Last Modified: 05/11/2024 Back to top