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Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assessment privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 16 May 2024.

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. Read an easy read version of this privacy notice (PDF, 416.7 KB).

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. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) are the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They use personal data and other information to help them to carry out their role as the regulator of health and adult social care services in England. They make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve. KCC will work with CQC as part of their local authority assessment to evidence and assess how we are meeting our duties as part of the Care Act 2014.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of working with CQC and you we will collect and share the following personal information that has been provided to us for your care and support. This may have been provided by yourself, by other people involved in your care and support or other professionals etc.

  • Personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender).
  • Contact details for members of your family and support network if you wish them to advocate for you.
  • Information about your finances, for example care funding support.

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:

  • Information about your racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief and your sexual orientation.
  • Information about health conditions or disabilities that may apply to you.
  • Information about you and your circumstances:
    • Reasons for contact and support (such as what is working well and what you are worried about).
    • Assessment and plan information (such as further details of your care and support needs, and how we are going to work together to support you live the life you wish).
  • Information about your needs and wishes.
  • information about relevant health and safety concerns.
  • details of services that you access for your care and support needs.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • support the CQC to undertake their review of health and social care services to comply with regulatory duties
  • make sure our services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and meet our duties within the Care Act 2014
  • assess and review quality improvements for the service.

The sharing of information facilitates a joined-up approach with CQC, to provide you with the best possible care and support.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on the following lawful bases to collect and use your personal information.

  • Article 6(1)(a) - the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
  • Article 6(1)(e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

When we collect your ‘special categories of personal data,’ (such as health and disabilities, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical belief, sexual orientation and Care and support provision) 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.
  • Article (9)(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (statutory and government purposes)

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category and/or criminal convictions data when relying on the conditions above, we:

  • have an Appropriate Policy for Lawful Processing which explains how the data protection principles are secured when using special category information. This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 months after we cease to use it.
  • have a retention schedule which explains how long data is retained.
  • 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 AS1 – 6 (excluding AS2.1, AS2.2, AS4.4, AS4.5, AS4.9, AS4.10, AS4.11, AS4.12.15, AS4.12.16, AS4.13, AS5.2, AS6.1) which provides a breakdown of the retention periods relied on by adult services). The criteria for determining retention periods are statutory or other industry requirements, legal liability or other legal requirements and best business practice.

CQC will only hold your information for as long as necessary and use their CQC retention schedule to ensure that data is securely destroyed at the end of its retention schedule.

Who we share your personal information with

In the course of working with CQC we will collect and use your personal and special category information to ensure that we meet our local authority obligation to support CQC with their assessment of local authorities.

We will not share your information any further for the purposes of this project.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law or in connection with legal proceedings.

We will share personal information with our legal and professional advisers in the event of a dispute, complaint or claim. We rely on Article 9(2)(f) where the processing of special category data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.

Your rights

Under the 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 Commissioners Office
  • withdraw consent at any time (if applicable)

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. Please note, 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 the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.

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

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

Please 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.

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.