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Privacy Notice - Children's Community Health Service


This privacy notice tells you about what information we collect about you, how we use that information and who we share it with.

Who we are and what we do

Children's Community Health includes health visitors and school nurses. Health visitors are qualified nurses with additional training in family and community health and work in community-based teams with a range of services.  School nurses provide confidential advice and health information which is available to young people, their parents, carers and teachers. They help ensure children and young people stay fit and healthy and offer health assessments to all children when they start primary and secondary school. This information is used to help plan and improve services for children.

For the purposes of Data Protection, Cornwall Council is the Data Controller for your information under Registration Number Z1745294.

What type of information is collected about you or your children

This information may be collected directly from you or from other agencies

  • name and date of birth
  • national identifiers such as; NHS number
  • address where the child/young person ordinarily lives
  • sibling links
  • parent name and contact details (telephone numbers and e mail address)
  • parents name and date of birth (where applicable)
  • medical information
  • who your information may be shared with (internally and externally) when we need your consent for this. Information may also be shared on a lawful basis other than consent
  • information relating to episodes of being a child in need (such as referral information, assessment information, Section 47 information, Initial Child Protection information and Child Protection Plan information)
  • episodes of being looked after (such as important dates, information on placements)

What is our lawful basis to obtain and use your personal information? 

The lawful bases for us processing personal data are set out in Article 6 of the UK GDPR. They are:

Art 6(1)(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for us to process their personal data for a specific purpose e.g. for children’s health advice purposes and immunisations

Art 6(1)(c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law

Art 6(1)(d) Vital interests: the processing may be necessary to protect someone's life

Art 6(1)(e) Public task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law

Under Article 9 we process data in line with:

  • Explicit consent Article 9(2)(a) UK GDPR.
  • For reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law) when we are processing ethnicity information for equality monitoring purposes or to complete data returns Art 9(2)(g) UK GDPR
  • Health and Social Care - we use it for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services Art 9(2)(h) UK GDPR. e.g. when we participate in social care meetings with regards to families.

Legislation which sets out many of the tasks the council is required to undertake in relation to community health services can include (not exhaustive):

  • Health and Social Care Act 2012

Why we need your information and how we use it

Personal data is received, stored and processed in order for the Community Health Service to;

  • meet its aim to provide appropriate and effective support to children and young people in the areas highlighted above. This advice and support will be available from the point the service is contacted until the issue in question is addressed.  Support and advice will be dependent upon each individual need and the team contacted.
  • monitor and analyse the service provided for individual children and young people
  • help us develop and improve our services
  • complete statistical returns to national organizations

Who your information may be shared with

Sometimes, we might need to ask another team or organisation to help you. To do this, we might need to give the organisation information about you.

We may share information with (this list is not exhaustive):

  • midwives
  • GP’s
  • hospitals
  • mental health services
  • education
  • early years
  • family hubs
  • children’s services
  • specialist services
  • other third-party organisations, as allowed by law other partner agencies that provide services on our behalf
  • agencies with whom we have a duty to co-operate, such as police

Whenever we let people outside of the Council see your information, we give them instructions about what they can do with it. We also ask them to show us that they will look after the information properly.

National data opt-out

Most of the time children's community health personal data (i.e. data collected by health visiting, school nursing and speech and language therapy teams) is anonymised before it is used for research and planning purposes so that individuals cannot be identified. However, when children's community health personal information might be used for research and planning purposes, you have a choice about whether we use personal information this way under the National Data Opt-Out.

If you are happy with this use of personal information you do not need to do anything.

If you do choose to opt out of children's community health personal information being used for research and planning purposes, personal information will still be used to support individual direct care.

Find out more or register your choice to opt out

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Cornwall Council Together for Families Directorate (Children’s Community Health Service) is currently compliant with the national data opt-out policy and we will apply your choice to any confidential personal information we use or share for purposes beyond individual care and support.

How do we keep your information secure? 

The security of your personal information is important to us. The records we keep about you are secure and are confidential within the Council. The Council have a range of procedures, polices and systems to ensure that access to your records are controlled appropriately. Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to only use the information for the purposes agreed and keep the information secure and confidential.

Further information is available in the Council’s corporate privacy notice.

We have a contract with The Access Group to securely store data relating to social care, community health, education and youth services in systems provided by them. You can find more information about The Access Group on their website

How long will we keep your information

Personal data will not be retained for longer than necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected.

Documentation containing personal data is then archived.

Business area

Client specific

Retention period (case closure)

Health and social care

Child measurement

10 years from date of creation

 

Health advice

6 years from date of creation

 

Immunisation

6 years from date of vaccination or immunisation

 

Marketing and e-newsletters

Please see the Council’s Stay in Touch privacy notice.

Business intelligence, profiling and automated-decision making

Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice.

Protecting your information

Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice

Your information choice and rights

Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice.

Further information 

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) provides help and guidance to make sure we apply the best standards to protecting your personal information. If something goes wrong with your personal information, or you have questions about how we process your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@cornwall.gov.uk.

If we have not been able to deal with your query, you can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office: 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

0303 123 1113
www.ico.org.uk

Need help?

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