How should care providers protect data? What information should they hold about clients? Why will they hold this information and how will they use it?
How should care providers protect data? – Our Client Privacy Notice.
As part of the services we offer, we are required to process personal data about our staff, our service users and, in some instances, the friends or relatives of our service users and staff. “Processing” can mean collecting, recording, organising, storing, sharing or destroying data.
We are committed to being transparent about why we need your personal data and what we do with it. This information is set out in this privacy notice. It also explains your rights when it comes to your data.
If you have any concerns or questions please contact us by emailing info@gardinershomecare.co.uk, or calling 01183347474.
What data do we have?
So that we can provide a safe and professional service, we need to keep certain records about you.
We may process your basic details and contact information e.g. name, address, date of birth and next of kin and your financial details e.g. details of how you pay us for your care or your funding arrangements.
We may also record data which is classified as “special category” being health and social care data about you, which might include both your physical and mental health data. We may also record data about your race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or religion.
Why do we have this data?
We need this data so that we can provide high-quality care and support. By law, we need to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data.
We process your data because we have a legal obligation to do so – generally under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 or Mental Capacity Act 2005.
We process your special category data because it is necessary for us to provide and manage our care services;
We are required to provide some data to our regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as part of our public interest obligations.
We may also process your data with your consent. If we need to ask for your permission, we will offer you a clear choice and ask that you confirm to us that you consent. We will also explain clearly to you what we need the data for and how you can withdraw your consent at any time.
Where do we process your data?
So that we can provide you with high quality care and support we need specific data. This is collected from or shared with You or your legal representative(s); Third parties.
We do this face to face, via phone, via email, via our website, via post, via application forms, via apps delete or insert as appropriate all of the methods you use to communicate with your service users.
Third parties are organisations we might lawfully share your data with including:
- other parts of the health and care system such as local hospitals, the GP, the pharmacy, social workers, clinical commissioning groups, and other health and care professionals;
- The Local Authority;
- Your family or friends – with your permission;
- Organisations we have a legal obligation to share information with i.e. safeguarding, the CQC;
- The police or other law enforcement agencies if we have to by law or court order.
National data opt out
The national data opt-out gives everyone the ability to stop health and social care organisations from sharing their confidential information for research and planning purposes, with some exceptions such as where there is a legal mandate/direction or an overriding public interest for example to help manage the covid-19 pandemic.
As a domiciliary care provider, it is very rare that we are ever asked to share confidential information about our clients for research or and planning purposes. Nevertheless, clients can if they wish choose to opt out of their data being used in this way – to do so, please call 01183347474 and ask to speak with John-Joe Cottam as the Data Protection Lead.
Your rights
The data that we keep about you is your data and we ensure that we keep it confidential and that it is used appropriately. You have the following rights when it comes to your data:
You have the right to request a copy of all of the data we keep about you. Generally, we will not charge for this service;
It is your right to ask us to correct any data we have which you believe to be inaccurate or incomplete. You can also request that we restrict all processing of your data while we consider your rectification request;
You have the right to ask that we erase any of your personal data which is no longer necessary for the purpose we originally collected it for. We retain our data in line with our Data Retention Policy and Data Retention Schedule.
Clients may also request that we restrict processing if we no longer require personal data for the purpose we originally collected it for.
You can ask for your data to be erased if we have asked for your consent to process your data. You can withdraw consent at any time – please contact us to do so.
If we are processing your data as part of our legitimate interests as an organisation or in order to complete a task in the public interest, you have the right to object to that processing. We will restrict all processing of this data while we look into your objection.
You may need to provide adequate information for our staff to be able to identify you, for example, a passport or driver’s licence. This is to make sure that data is not shared with the wrong person inappropriately. We will always respond to your request as soon as possible and at the latest within one month.
If you would like to complain about how we have dealt with your request, please contact:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
How should care providers protect data?