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Children's Services: Privacy Notice

Anyone receiving information, advice or assistance from Powys County Council Children's Services will have a record kept about them. Children's Services collects personal information to enable us to provide early help, prevention and social care services to children, young people and families.

This document explains why this information is held and with whom it is being shared.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the legal framework in the EU with effect from 25th May 2018 and provides rights to individuals concerning their personal data.

All data was previously processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and all individuals had the right to access data held about them. If you wish to access your data, or as a parent your child's data, please contact the Information Compliance Team

What will the law mean for you?

The rights that individuals have about their personal data is handled and stored have been changed and enhanced. You have the right to know how the data has been processed and make requests, in certain circumstances.

What do we mean by personal information?

Personal information includes basic details about you, such as your name, date of birth and address. Some kinds of personal information are sensitive such as health matters, disabilities and ethnic background. We may also need to collect information on family members and other significant persons.

What is the information used for?

The main reasons we collect and use personal information are:

  • To help us make sure we provide you with the most appropriate support;
  • To help us in our work to detect and prevent the abuse of children and young people;
  • To make applications for services, support or benefits on your behalf; and
  • To help us plan, organise and improve those services, report on the work we have done and show we have used public funds properly.
  • To deliver accurate and efficient support to children, young people and their families which may include signposting to additional services e.g. Health, Children and Young Peoples Partnerships and other Third Sector Partners.

Looking after your information

We keep your information securely and it is only seen by staff who need it to do their jobs. Personal information held on paper is stored in places that are not accessible to the public. Only authorised staff can use our computerised information systems and they must follow security procedures.

Sharing your information

The sharing of your information will be undertaken in line with our tasks and in line with legislation.

We will only share information with an organisation if they need it to do their job, or where the law requires us to do so for example:

  • Those that provide support and care services;
  • If we take a child into care;
  • If the court orders that we provide the information;
  • Regulatory bodies that inspect or monitor our work;
  • Organisations such as the Police, health, education services and Third Sector partners who work jointly with us to provide services and protect individuals

Other information

Under Section 83 of The Children Act 1989, we are required to provide a subset of the information we hold on children in need of care and support services, including those looked after, to the Welsh Government (WG), Families First and Flying Start data collection.

The data we have to send will vary each year but will include personal information (with names removed) and details of services provided. WG will use this information to help in planning services for people in Wales, to measure how well services are being provided so that they can be improved and to help conduct research into people's well-being and this may involve combining it with other information e.g. health or education data.  

Legal Basis: for processing personal data

We will have considered appropriate lawful grounds for processing your data. Your personal information is required in order that we carry out those tasks as appropriate under the legislation to which Childrens services are required to work in some case this may result in a statutory obligation for information to be provided and collected. If you refuse to provide the data we require this could result in us not being in a position to provide you with services.

How long will we retain your information?

Powys County Council Children's Services retain your information for some time after we have stopped delivering services to you. The Retention Periods are specified within its Corporate Retention Schedule.  After this time records are safely destroyed.

Accountability

We will ensure we demonstrate how we comply with legislation when collecting and processing your personal data.

Children's Services commitments under GDPR

Powys County Council's Children's Services commitment will be to ensure that the data is:

  • Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
  • Collected for a specific and legitimate purpose. It will not be used for anything other than this stated purpose
  • Relevant and limited to whatever the requirements are for which they are processed
  • Accurate, and where necessary, kept up to date. Any inaccuracies will be amended or removed without undue delay.
  • Stored for as long as required, as specified on our records retention policy
  • Secured with appropriate solutions, which protect the data against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage

Data Protection Officer 

Under the new law, the Council must have a named Data Protection Officer who is responsible for data protection matters and available to be contacted by members of the public. If you wish to contact the Data Protection Officer, please email information.compliance@powys.gov.uk

If you want to know more about how Powys County Council uses your personal information then please visit: Powys County Council - Data Protection and Privacy.  If you don't have access to a computer ask a member of staff to print it off for you. 
 
For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, you can contact: 
 
Information Commissioner's Office - Wales
2nd Floor,
Churchill House,
Churchill Way, 
Cardiff, 
CF10 2HH 
Tel: 02920 678400
Email: wales@ico.org.uk