Privacy: Adults services

This privacy notice is designed to help you understand how we use personal information when delivering our adult services. It includes the services covered, the information we may use to deliver the services, who we may share it with, and how long we will keep it.

What services are covered by this privacy notice?

Adult Ongoing Support service

Provides ongoing social care support to adults who currently receive an adult social care service.

Adult Service Placement service

Arranges the social care support services that you require with our contracted social care providers.

Adult Social Care Connects

Main contact point for anyone to request adult social care support or to request advice and information regarding social care.

Commissioning

Designs and shapes the support and services that are available for people who require social care support.

Complex (Learning disability and Autism) service

Provides social care support to adults who have complex adult social care needs/behaviours.

Early Intervention service

Assesses and provides social care support to adults who are not currently receiving a social care service.

Essential Living Fund (ELF) 

Provides financial support to eligible Essex residents in times of significant financial hardship. Support can be offered to successful applicants by the way of All Pay cards towards food and fuel costs, and in exceptional circumstances provision of white goods and furniture. 

Essex Release Housing Partnership

To reduce the number of Essex adults on probation who leave custody without suitable accommodation to move into, and especially to reduce the number of people on probation who have to sleep rough or to move into accommodation.

Health Coaching

Helps to empower individuals with learning disabilities and autism to take health into their own hands.

Health and safety

Provides advice on health and safety management to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act and all subordinate regulations.

Household Support Fund

A government scheme providing financial support to eligible individuals with electrical medical equipment. It also provides supermarket vouchers for pensioners without a bank account.

Quality Assurance and Safeguarding service

Ensures the quality our services are maintained and supports investigations into safeguarding concerns.

Research into health and wellbeing

Researches into health, wellbeing, lifestyle and social circumstances of adults in Essex.

Senior Occupational Therapist in housing 

Provide direct and accessible specialist support and provide professional advice to the local authorities delivering the DFGs and housing services.

Travel and accommodation booking service

Books travel and accommodation to meet service user needs.

What personal information do we hold?

We only collect and use the minimum personal information required to deliver your service. Wherever possible we use non-identifiable personal information.

The services may use some or all of the personal information below:

• name and contact details
• date of birth
• social Care ID
• NHS number
• national insurance number
• family details
• lifestyle and social circumstances
• financial details
• housing needs
• visual images, personal appearance and behaviour
• case file information
• criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
• physical or mental health details
• racial or ethnic origin
• offences (including alleged offences)
• religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
• social care support outcomes
• advocacy details

We get most of this information from you, but we may also get some of this data from:

• health agencies
• other local authorities
• police
• probation
• members of the public (referrer)
• commissioned partners
• family members
• other Essex County Council social care teams

How do we use your personal information?

We use your information for one or more of the following reasons:

• deliver the service, or handle your query
• to plan and improve the services we offer
• to safeguard vulnerable adults
• to detect and prevent crime or fraud
• for research, however this would be in anonymised form unless we ask for your consent to use your personal information for this purpose
• to evidence positive outcomes to central government funding agencies

Who else might we share your personal information with?

Sometimes we may need to share your information, but we will only do so where it is necessary or required by law. We will only share the minimum information for each circumstance.

We may sometimes need to share some of your information with:

• health service providers including NHS Agencies (GPs, hospitals, ambulance, health visitor, mental health services)
• education providers
• commissioned partners
• care providers, for example day care, domiciliary, residential
• government agencies (for example, Department of Health, Department of Work and Pensions)
• arms-length bodies attached to government agencies (for example, NHS Digital)
• support groups for people with disabilities
• local government, including for electoral roll purposes
• police
• substance misuse agencies
• advocacy services
• fire and rescue services
• prepaid card providers
• voucher providers
• Direct Payment support services
• housing associations
• technology assistance providers
• Shared Lives providers (supported accommodation)
• Stopford for booking services
• Phoenix Futures to deliver services supporting vulnerable groups commissioned by ECC
• Telljo for helping to prevent service users going into crisis
• Post Office the process and delivery of fuel vouchers
• Batias assisting ECC to deliver the Health Coaching programme

In addition, if you are receiving support from Adult Social Care, then the NHS may share your NHS number with us. This is so that the NHS and Adult Social Care are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care. By using the same number the NHS and Adult Social Care can work together more closely to support you.

We will use the NHS Number in an integrated care record system across a number of support services including:

• GPs
• hospitals
• community matrons
• district nurses
• social care practitioners

For more information see My Care Record

In line with the National Data Guardian’s opt-out service, you have the right to opt-out of allowing use of your personal data for some secondary purposes such as service planning, research and risk stratification.

Information relating to opt-outs is held securely within NHS systems. Where our Adult Care Services need to use personal data, they will run an automated check of a data set against the NHS list and remove data relating to any NHS numbers where an opt-out has been flagged, before producing statistical reports and similar information. This does not apply to data which has been anonymised in line with the ICO’s Code of Practice. Opting out will not affect how your data is used and shared for your direct care.

Local authorities need to plan services to make best use of our budget for social care so that we can meet the needs of our residents for the future, so please consider this before deciding to opt out.

If you wish to exercise your right to opt-out, visit the NHS website. You'll need your NHS number or the email address or mobile number held by your GP practice to verify your identity on the website.

The National Data Guardian’s opt-out service does not apply to the statutory data uploads we provide to NHS Digital as required by the Central Government directive in support of local health and care systems.

We may also use data processors to support activities, for example by providing the systems we need or delivering services on our behalf.

These include:

• our case management system Mosaic
• Mitie our facilities management company
• CapitaPay 360 for taking payments and issuing SMS receipts. For SMS receipts, this information will be retained in GOV.UK Notify for 7 days then deleted. This information will not be used for any other purpose.
• PCI Pal for taking payments on the telephone
• Stopford for booking services
• Telljo for helping to prevent service users going into crisis
• other data processors supporting your care might include domiciliary care providers, residential nursing care providers, day care providers, education providers, prepaid card providers within the European Economic Area and direct payment management solutions
• commissioned partners
• Mandiant supports the Council by providing Incident response and enhanced expertise, enabling Essex County Council to protect its network from cyber security risks

Who is the Data Controller for this processing?

Essex County Council is the Data Controller for this processing with the exception of our residential or nursing and domiciliary care providers who will also be Data Controllers for the purposes of providing you with care and support.

We may use your information for the prevention and detection of fraud and crime. This may include sharing your personal information with external agencies that could lead to some services being declined. Read more about how your information is processed.

What is the legal basis for our use of your personal information?

The information below shows the legal basis we are relying on to use your personal or special category (sensitive) personal information. You can see a list of the full legal conditions we may rely on by looking at our full privacy notice.

Here is a list of the legislation we rely on when using your personal information to meet our legal obligations or public tasks.

Personal information

Our legal basis for using your personal information are to meet our legal obligations, exercise our tasks in the public interest and to protect your vital interests.

Special category (sensitive) personal information

Our legal basis for using your special category information are substantial public interest and the delivery of health and social care services.

Will my personal information be accessible outside the UK?

We use Redfern for travel and accommodation bookings. (View their Global Privacy Policy). Where the booking is for accommodation or flights the information will be accessible to their parent company in the United States. In order to safeguard your personal information and ensure you have the same rights as you would if your personal information was processed in the UK we have ensured that the parent company is registered with the US Privacy Shield.

No other personal information is routinely sent or stored outside the UK. Should the transfer of personal information outside of the UK become necessary, it will only take place if permitted by law, and then only where there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect the personal information.

How long will we keep your personal information?

We will only use your personal information whilst delivering the service to you and to deal with any questions or complaints that we may receive about this, unless the law requires us to keep it for a longer period. In practice, this means that your information will be deleted seven years after we stop using it where a service has been provided or five years after we stop using it where we have only provide you with advice and information.

Health and safety

The Health and Safety Service will stop using your personal information when your case is concluded and will delete it after five years.

Household Support Fund

Personal information processed for the Household Support Fund will be deleted one month after the termination of the scheme.

Research into health and wellbeing

Research information will stop being used after the research project you have been involved in has been completed. Any notes taken (hand written or typed) during consultation sessions will be destroyed. The information will continue to be used in a summarised and anonymised form in any research reports or papers that are published. The anonymised information in the papers may be of historic interest and may be held in public archives indefinitely.

Your rights

The law gives you a number of rights to control what personal information is used by us and how it is used by us.

You can obtain further information about these rights from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint in relation to this summary notice, the full privacy notice or our processing activities with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Contact us

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, you can contact our Data Protection Officer.