Adult social care stakeholder engagement privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 5 April 2024.

This privacy notice is in relation to the activities of Kent County Council adult social care stakeholder engagement only.

Kent County Council (KCC) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Who we are

KCC collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.

We are always looking at innovative ways to improve our services, respond to change and work with and listen to the people of Kent. We need to work with you to do this as your voice really does make a difference.

Through our adult social care stakeholder engagement, we want you to tell us how things have been so we can learn from your experiences, and we want you to help us to shape what we do across adult social care in Kent going forward.

Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

As part of adult social care stakeholder engagement, to enable us to provide you with information relating to adult social care or to engage with you on adult social care and health activities and projects, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

• personal information such as your name, address, email address, telephone number
• your image or voice via photograph, video or audio
• your job title, or the organisation you work for.

We also collect the following ‘special category data’ (personal data which is more sensitive and is treated with extra care and protection) when you provide it to us:

• your view and/or experiences about adult social care services or care and support provided
• information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief
• information about health conditions such as disabilities or caring responsibilities that may apply to you
• information about you and your circumstances
• information about relevant health and safety concerns.

We also obtain the same personal information listed above from other sources when you provide it to us as follows:

• Your Voice network sign-ups
• People’s Panel sign-ups
• engagement events and workshops
• online and postal surveys that may include questions asking for personal information
• recruitment interview panel sign-ups
• feedback forms
• feedback meetings
• case studies
• video, audio and other media consent forms.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information in the following ways:

• To provide you with regular updates and information:
  • To send you the annual Local Account for adult social care, as well as alerts as required. The Local Account is our annual report for adult social care in Kent. This information will be provided by email using the email address you have asked us to use for this purpose or sent to your contact address.
  • Engagement opportunities, projects and upcoming events where you have consented to be part of a distribution list.
• To create and maintain a distribution list for adult social care engagement:
  • Emails will be sent periodically with updates, event invitations and other information deemed to be of use. We will only contact you where you have consented to be part of a distribution list.
• To develop content for our web pages, Local Account, other adult social care literature or promotional materials:
  • Uploading your image or voice in the form of photographs, videos, audio and case studies.
  • Creating videos, audio and other forms of media such as pictures, flyers, brochures, posters, pull up banners, newsletters and presentations delivered internally and externally as part of our social media content.
  • The information you provide to us in relation to case studies, video, audio and other media (for example photographs) may be uploaded into the public domain via our website, social media content and newsletters. This means the information you provide will be accessible to the general public.
• To create attendance lists at all events and workshops:
  • For online events, this is to enable us to know who is going to be joining the event virtually. For face-to-face events, this is so we can see who is in attendance for safety reasons and in the event of an emergency or evacuation so we can account for all attendees.
  • We use attendance lists following an event or workshop to send post event or workshop session communication. This is sent out via email or posted to contact addresses. Contact details for events are not shared with other people and are only used in the above ways during and following attendance at one of our events or workshops.

We do not ask for, or need, special category data from you (for example racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs or health information) to enable us to provide you with information relating to adult social care or to engage with you on adult social care and health activities and projects.

However, if you provide it to us voluntarily, we will only use that information if it is vital either to your request for information, to engage with you on adult social care and health activities and projects or is to comply with a special requirement that you may have.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal data

When we collect your personal data, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Article 6(1)(a) ‘the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes’ when you register to join the Your Voice or People’s Panel and request to be notified of updates and alerts. You can opt out of these updates and alerts at any time by updating your registration profile.

When we collect your ‘special categories of personal data’, (such as health, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation) we rely on the following legal bases:

• Article (9)(2)(a) - the individual has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category when relying on the conditions above:

• We have an appropriate policy which explains how data protection principles are secured when using special category data.
• This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 months after we cease to use it.
• We have a retention schedule which explains how long data is retained.
• We maintain a record of our processing in our ‘Record of Processing Activities’ and record in it any reasons for deviating from the periods in our retention schedule.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary. To work out how long we need to keep your information for we use our retention schedule (see sections AS3.2.2). The criteria for determining retention periods are statutory or other industry requirements, legal liability or other legal requirements and best business practice.

Distribution lists

If you have subscribed to the adult social care distribution list, ‘Your Voice’ network or ‘People’s Panel’ as listed above, your contact information or preferences will be held in a secure database or contact list until such time that you remove your consent. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Video, audio and other media

Refer to the signed permission form in relation to the use of your image or voice captured via video, audio or other media such as photographs, as this will be retained as per the signed consent form. Videos that are captured by the Stakeholder Engagement Team may also be stored online via our YouTube account; for more information read YouTube's Privacy Policy.

Information supplied to us in the form of videos, audio and other images will be securely held by us for three years unless you withdraw your consent prior to this point. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information. Once you have withdrawn your consent or your consent has expired, the information will be held in line with KCC's retention schedule before being securely destroyed.

Social media

As part of our social media activity, we may use information such as videos, audio, images and case studies to build content for our posts. We will use KCC’s X, Facebook or YouTube accounts to share this information. For more information you can read:

• X’s privacy policy
• Facebook’s privacy policy
• YouTube’s privacy notice.

We will only use information that you have already consented for us to use and once the consent has expired, we will no longer use the information supplied in any future KCC Adult Social Care social media posts. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Sign in sheets for workshops and events

All sign in sheets will be held for 3 months from the date of the event; this will allow sufficient time for any follow up communications that are related to the event, workshop or training session attended. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information.

Feedback meetings, feedback forms, surveys and case studies

Information supplied as part of feedback meetings, through feedback forms, surveys that include questions asking for personal information or case studies will be held by us internally for 3 years unless you withdraw your consent prior to this point. Refer to section AS3.2.2 for more information. Once you have withdrawn your consent or your consent has expired, the information will be held in line with KCC’s Data Protection Policy before being securely destroyed.

Who we share your personal information with

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

• know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
• ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• object to direct marketing
• make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

• ask us to delete information we hold about you
• have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• object to how we are using your information
• stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.

If you would like to exercise a right, email the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk.

Your right to withdraw your consent

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 notifying the Stakeholder Engagement Team in writing either by:

• emailing makingadifference@kent.gov.uk
• posting to Stakeholder Engagement Team, Adult Social Care Business Delivery Unit, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone ME14 1XX.

On receipt of your notification, we will stop using your information in future publications, but it may continue to appear in publications or social media posts already in circulation.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

Contact

Contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@kent.gov.uk to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.

You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Benjamin Watts, at dpo@kent.gov.uk or write to: Data Protection Officer, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ.

UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with Information Commissioner, who may be contacted via the Information Commissioner's website or call 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.