Privacy notice

Children’s Social Care

The London Borough of Hounslow is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Through this Privacy Notice we have sought to be as transparent as possible and fully explain how your personal data is held and processed.

This privacy notice applies to services provided by CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE and tells you what we do with your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or any concerns about how we process your data, please contact 020 8583 2000 or childrens.services@hounslow.gov.uk  The privacy notice will continue to be monitored and updated. You are advised to check this page from time to time.

Children’s Social Care
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
7 Bath Road
Hounslow
TW3 3EB

 

What type of information we have 

We currently collect and process the following personal information:

  • Name of child - and parent/carer and other family members, if required
  • Address of child, parent/carer - and other family members, if required
  • Date of birth of child - and parent/carer and other family members, if required
  • NHS Number of child - and parent/carer if required
  • National insurance number of parent/carer, if required
  • ID of parent/carer, if required
  • Unique pupil number of child
  • Telephone number of child, parent/carer - and other family members, if required
  • Email address of child and parent/carer - and other family members, if required
  • GP details of child - and of parent/carer, if required.

As well as personal information where applicable, we may collect and share additional information known as ‘Special Categories of Personal Data’ where appropriate including:

  • Gender of child, and parent/carer - and other family members, if required
  • Nationality of child - and parent/carer and other family members, if required
  • Ethnic origin of child - and parent/carer and other family members, if required
  • Religion of child - and parent/carer and other family members, if required
  • Health data of child - and parent/carer if required
  • Sexual orientation of child, if required.

How do we get your information?

Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by a young person or by a child or young person’s parent, carer or representative.

We may also receive personal information indirectly from:

  • Health professionals such as General Practitioners and those providing therapeutic or medical care.
  • Other Hounslow Council teams within Children’s Social Care and other departments, such as Housing, Benefits and teams working within Hounslow providing educational services
  • Carers, advocates, and family members
  • Members of the public who make a referral to us
  • Schools and Academies
  • Government Bodies such as the Department for Health & Social Care
  • Other Local Authorities.

We only process information from the above if it is required for us to carry out statutory functions for which we are legally responsible for.

Our Lawful basis for processing your information

The lawful basis we rely on for processing this information is

  • Legal obligation – so that we comply with a common law or statutory obligation; and 
    Public task – so that we may perform a task in the public interest or for an official function, and the task or function has a clear basis in law.

The above lawful bases require legal justification, the team relies on the following:

  • The Children Act 2004
  • The Children Act 1989
  • The Education Act 2011
  • The Health and Social Care Act 2012
  • Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • Mental Health Act 1983
  • The Social Security (Emergency Funds) (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

If the information you provide us contains special category data, such as health, religious or ethnic information the legal basis we rely on to process is

  • Health or social care purposes – for the provision of health or social care or treatment and for social support services.

Why we need your information (purposes of processing)

The personal data we collect will be used for the following purposes:

  • To carry out an assessment of social or health needs, which meet all of our legal and statutory duties including, but not limited to, those which apply under The Children Act 1989, The Children Act 2004, the Education Act 2011 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012
  • To assist planning and decision-making through the use of internal and local multi-agency panels, such as the Education, Health and Care Plans Panel and Early Years SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Panel, to review and make recommendations on access to funding, services, provision and/or resources based upon assessed need.

To allow us to communicate and provide services appropriate to assessed needs, these may include, but are not limited to:

  • Child and family assessment
  • Early Years Support
  • Access to funds, including for those individuals who are not entitled to public funds
  • Child protection concerns
  • Children’s Centre Service delivery
  • Professional’s Referrals
  • Placement planning
  • Adoption and Fostering services
  • Residential Services
  • Youth Offending Services
  • Leaving Care Support.
  • To gather information which informs planning and service delivery decisions
  • Where we are legally obliged, to undertake data processing prevention and/or detection of fraud and crime
  • To process financial transactions or where the council is acting on behalf of other government bodies such as the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government
  • Where necessary, to safeguard and protect people from harm or injury
  • To conduct research or statistical analysis that allows us to target and plan the provision of services for adults, young people and those participating in programmes such as Supporting Families
  • To identify residents/users for notifying them of proposed or planned changes to services that may affect them
  • To assist the council in responding to emergencies or major incidents. This allows the council, in conjunction with the emergency services, to identify citizens who may need additional support
  • Issuing of licenses e.g. Children in the media (TV, theatre etc.)

London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA)

The LIIA project is a pan-London initiative to address important issues for children in London that can only be answered by examining London’s data as a whole. By creating a secure platform where local authorities can share data with each other and other analysts, the project will improve the breadth and quality of data analysis available to local authorities in London.

Data agreements are in place to ensure that:

  • Data is pseudonymised to reduce the risk of individuals being identified e.g. “Tim Smith, DOB 17th Jan 2000, postcode SW14 2JU” becomes “ID 58095927, DOB Jan 2000, postcode SW14”
  • Under no circumstances will the data be used for any automated decision making
  • All data is transferred, handled or stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act
  • Access to the data is confined to the smallest possible number of people to produce the analysis
  • All data is destroyed after six years.

You have the right to object to your data being used this way.   If you wish to exercise it then please contact 020 8583 2000 or childrens.services@hounslow.gov.uk

 

  • Who your information may be shared with (internally and externally)

When it is necessary, we may share your information with:

  • NHS England – General Practitioners and other health professionals, including hospitals, ambulance services and mental health trusts
  • Commissioned Providers of care such as Hounslow and Richmond Community Health Care Trust
  • Community enterprises that offer voluntary or commissioned services that support the care you need or activities that support wellbeing
  • Other commissioned services such as transport providers to enable children and young people to be transported to educational establishments, day service provision and commissioned activity sessions
  • Organisations that assist with the provision of any support you receive, including any financial assistance you may be entitled to, for example payment/prepayment card providers
  • Social Finance – an external organisation commissioned by the Council to conduct research and recommendation development for a YSEG project called SEND Pathways
  • Internal departments within the London Borough of Hounslow, such as Housing, Finance, Adult Social Care, Public Health, internal youth support services or departments
  • Government Bodies such as the Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education
  • Ministry of Justice agencies including HM Courts and Tribunal Service and HM Probation Service
  • Crown Prosecution Service
  • Externally instructed Lawyers/Counsel
  • Commissioned or voluntary youth support services
  • Schools and academies
  • Other Local Authorities (for example, Children and Adult Social Care, and Education Departments)
  • The Metropolitan Police or other Police services
  • London Fire Brigade and other Fire Services
  • Family members, carers and advocates
  • Greater London Authority
  • London Innovation and Improvement Alliance
  • Association of London Directors of Children’s Services

We will strive to ensure that any personal data in our care will be kept safe and that where your information is disclosed to a third party working on our behalf, we will seek to ensure that they have sufficient systems and procedures in place to prevent the loss or damage of personal data.

How long we keep your information

We keep records containing personal information for specific periods depending on the type of record – these can be found in Appendix A of this document

We will then dispose of your information in the most secure manner possible.

 

Business Intelligence, Profiling and Analysis

We may analyze your personal information to improve the council’s services for the following purposes:

  • undertake statutory functions efficiently and effectively
  • service planning by understanding your needs and your community's needs and to provide the services that you or your community request
  • understanding what we can do for you and your community and inform you of other relevant services and benefits
  • help us to build up a picture of how we are performing at delivering services to you and what services the people of Hounslow need
  • analysis of costs and spend of services we provide so that we can ensure better and efficient use of public funds

The council is committed to using pseudonymised or anonymised information where practical, and in many cases this will be the default position.

Pseudonymisation is a procedure by which the most identifying fields within a data record are replaced by one or more artificial identifiers, or pseudonyms. There can be a single pseudonym for a collection of replaced fields or a pseudonym per replaced field. An example of this is your National Insurance number or Council Tax Reference number.

Anonymisation is the process of removing identifying particulars or details. This means that the data cannot be linked back to identify you.

Business Intelligence, Profiling and Analysis | Privacy notice | London Borough of Hounslow

 

Data Matching

We are required by law to protect the public funds we administer. We may use the information you provide to us for the prevention and detection of crime. We may also share this information with other bodies that are responsible for auditing or administering public funds including the Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customers and the Police.

The council uses data matching as a way of processing large volumes of information. While this can be a useful way of detecting fraud, it also enables us to identify information that is inaccurate or out of date, helping us comply with Data Protection law, while improving service provision.

As part of the council’s fraud prevention and detection activities, the council participates in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). The data matching exercise is run by the Cabinet Office. You can find more information about this at the link below: 

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20110/open_data_and_information_requests/1365/data_protection/5

 

The National Data Opt Out

The National Data Opt Out was introduced on 25 May 2018 to allow you to opt out from the use of your data for anything other than your individual care and treatment. This will prevent it being used for research or planning purposes as listed above. The opt out is in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian in the Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-outs.

The national data opt out applies to the NHS and some of the activities of the council. The following link provides further information for you and details about how you can opt out if you choose to do so - The National Data Opt-Out | The National Data Opt-Out | London Borough of Hounslow

Your data protection rights

The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information. For further information about your data protection rights and how to make a request, please see ‘Your rights’

Your right to make a complaint

The Council tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage people to bring it to our attention if they think that our collection or use of information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

If you want to make a complaint you can contact us as follows:

Complaints Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
7 Bath Road
TW3 3EB

Email: complaints.crt@hounslow.gov.uk

Telephone 020 8583 5211

 

Data Protection Officer

The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on:

Email: InformationGovernance@hounslow.gov.uk

Information Governance Team
London Borough of Hounslow
Hounslow House
 7 Bath Road
TW3 3EB

 

Information Commissioner’s Office

The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body set up to uphold information rights.

If you would like to know more about your rights under the Data Protection law, and what you should expect, visit the Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/

If you have any concerns regarding any privacy practices or about exercising your Data Protection rights, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

Email: casework@ico.org.uk      

A full list of what information we control and process and for what purposes is set out in our notification with the Information Commissioner's Register of Data Controllers. Our registration number is Z5761176.  You can view our registration on the Information Commissioner's website.

 

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