Who will own my data once I submit it?
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Why do you need my information?
Knowsley Children’s Services are responsible for carrying out a wide range of provisions and duties under the Children and Families Act 2014.
Children’s Social Care comprises a range of services that offer specialist support to children, young people, and families. Support is provided by children’s Social Work teams, Fostering and Adoption services, the Leaving Care service. Our services may be provided face-to-face or virtually. We work in an integrated way with other children’s services teams in Knowsley Children’s Social Care and with partner organisations to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for children, young people, and families in Knowsley.
It is very important that we can plan, monitor, and realign our delivery of services to meet the needs of Knowsley’s children and families’. To do this, we carefully and responsibly use the information we collect. Where personal information is used for statistical purposes, we will ensure it is anonymised.
In certain cases, such as safeguarding inquiries and criminal investigations we are legally obliged to provide information to the police. However, we have procedures in place that allows this to be carried out in a secure and confidential manner. The information you provide helps us to support you and your family and meet our legal responsibilities, for example as part of an assessment of educational, social care or family support needs.
The information will be regarded as personal and sensitive (special category), but we will ensure we only ask you for information that is necessary for us to provide you with a service or meet our legal obligations.
We will ask for your information:
- Where we need your personal information to confirm your identity
- To investigate, assess and respond to the needs of children and their families
- To investigate, assess and respond when social work interventions are required
- To investigate and respond to statutory complaints
- To complete audit reports and enable improvement in how we work and support learning.
What allows you to use my information?
All organisations must provide a legal basis for processing your information. In most cases this is found under the Data Protection Act 2018, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
We collect and use your personal information to carry out tasks to comply with our legal obligations, and to carry out tasks in the public interest. We rely on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:
- Article (6)(1)(a) - Consent: the individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
- Article (6)(1)(c) - Legal obligation: the processing is necessary to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations)
- Article (6)(1)(e) - Public task: the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for official functions (task or function has a clear basis in law)
When we collect or share special category personal data, we rely upon the following legal bases under UK GDPR:
- Article 9(2)(f) - Legal claims or judicial acts
- Article 9(2)(g) - Reasons of substantial public interest. We rely on the ‘safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk’, and ‘equality of opportunity or treatment’ purposes condition from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.
- Article 9(2)(h) - Health or social care
The associated condition in UK law is provided in Schedule 1, Part 1, 2(2)(d), (e) & (f) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
These legal bases are underpinned by acts of legislation that dictate what actions can and should be taken by local authorities, including:
- The Children and Families Act 2014
- The Children and Social Work Act 2017
- The NHS and Community Care Act 1990
National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 No 309 - Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
- Adoption and Children Act 2002
- Children Act 1989 and 2004
- Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 to have a system for receiving complaints for adults and children’s social care service users or their representatives
- Local Government Act 2009
- Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Who will my information be shared with?
We may be required by law to share personal data relating to individuals/families and children to other Government departments and our authorised partner agencies organisations.
Wherever possible we will discuss with you the reasons for sharing information and where relevant ask for your informed and explicit consent. However, in some circumstances, the law and our policies allow us to share information without your consent (for example when we feel that you or others are at risk of harm). When sharing information, we do so in line with data protection legislation and agreed information sharing protocols.
Here is a list of some of the organisations that we may be required to share your information with:
- Other service areas within the Local Authority.
- Mersey Care (formerly Northwest Boroughs Health Service) if related to a shared service. For example, Care Experienced Health to ensure statutory health requirements are met and shared with the appropriate professionals to ensure all parties are fully informed on a child or young person’s health and social care status. Such information may be shared via access to secure case management systems.
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- All partner agencies involved specifically with children and families, to safeguard such as Police, Safeguarding Partnership
- When in court proceedings, information will be shared with parties to proceedings; The child’s parents and anyone else who holds Parental Responsibility for the child will be a” party to proceedings”. In some circumstances other individuals may request to be made a “party to proceedings” which the court will have agreed on if they feel this is in the best interest of the proceedings.
- Teams within KMBC working to improve outcomes for children and young people
- In house providers of social care services, such as in house foster carers and short breaks.
- Commissioned providers of Local Authority services (such as Voluntary Sector Agencies, Independent Foster Care Agencies, Children’s Homes, Semi-Independent accommodation Providers, Supported Lodgings Providers, Residential Special Schools, and Secure accommodation). Where services are commissioned, the provider would be a processor of information and be a controller in their own right, where they collect information for their own purpose.
- Law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.
- Interpreters E.g., where a staff member requires an interpreter to assist them in carrying out their role this will be communicated to you and IG arrangements will be in place to support any processing of personal information for this purpose.
- Partner organisations signed up to the Information Sharing Agreement, where necessary, which may include health visitors, midwives, district councils, housing providers, police, school nurses, doctors, and mental health workers
- Government departments including the Department of Education, Department of Work and Pensions, and the Home Office
- Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service
- Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children’s services)
- Wirral 0-25 Health Services (Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust) as a commissioned provider and under the terms of an Information Sharing Agreement to ensure children’s health needs are met and the relevant health services are provided to improve health outcomes. This will include access and sharing of information to provide health information to social care and social care information to health professionals involved in a child open with Early Help and Children’s Social Care.
Where we are required to lawfully share your information with authorised partner organisations, we will ensure this is done in a secure manner, and the information shared is relevant and proportionate in order for them deliver your services.
Do I have to provide this information and what will happen if I don’t?
Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent to our use of your data at any time. You can do this by emailing Inforights@knowsley.gov.uk
Please also be aware of the following:
- Information enables us to plan and support children and families further.
- Sometimes information is requested via Court, and it can affect plans if it is not shared.
- We appreciate open and honest relationships so may ask for consent to share information as best practice where appropriate. Where there is a clear risk or safeguarding issue, we may not seek your consent and rely on another lawful basis under UK GDPR as outlined above.
- If you are a family member who does not hold parental responsibility and do not consent to your information being shared within court proceedings and shared with parties to proceedings, you will be given the opportunity to withdraw from the assessment process.
How long will you keep this data for and why?
Your information will only be held for as long as necessary to achieve the relevant purpose unless we are legally required to retain it for a specific period. It will only be held for the periods stated in our record retention schedule, after which it will be securely destroyed.
Information can be stored up to 75 years, dependent upon the nature of the information. Most of this information is kept electronically.
How will my information be stored?
Your information will be stored securely on our IT system. Some information is held in a central SharePoint site. Access to the systems is restricted to those who are entitled to view and process your data. If the information is collected in a paper format, we will also ensure it is kept secure and destroyed when no longer required.
Will this information be used to take automated decisions about me?
No
Will my data be transferred abroad and why?
This will only happen in exceptional circumstances if a case requires it and information will be shared with your knowledge and only to agencies that meet UK GDPR requirements.
What rights do I have when it comes to my data?
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights with regard to your personal data: -
- The right to subject access – you have the right to see a copy of the personal data that the Council holds about you and find out what it is used for
- The right to rectification – you have the right to ask the council to correct or remove any inaccurate data that we hold about you.
- The right to erasure (right to be forgotten) you have the right to ask the council to remove data that we hold about you
- The right to restriction – you have the right to ask for your information to be restricted (locked down) on council systems
- The right to data portability – you have the right to ask for your data to be transferred back to you or to a new provider at your request
- The right to object – you have the right to ask the council to stop using your personal data or to stop sending you marketing information, or complain about how your data is used
- The right to prevent automated decision making – you have the right to ask the council to stop using your data to make automated decisions about you or to stop profiling your behaviour (where applicable)
To find out more about your rights under the UK GDPR, please visit the Information Commissioner’s website.
To request a copy of your data or ask questions about how it is used, please visit our data protection section or contact:
Data Protection Officer
Knowsley Council
Westmorland Road
Huyton
L36 9GL
Or email: Inforights@knowsley.gov.uk
Who can I complain to if I am unhappy about how my data is used?
You can complain directly to the Council’s Data Protection Team by writing to: -
Data Protection Officer
Knowsley Council
Westmorland Road
Huyton
L36 9GL
Or email: data.protection.officer@knowsley.gov.uk
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details: -
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Website: www.ico.org.uk