Creative Perinatal Mental Health Projects which offer Peer Support Group Sessions (facilitated) for expectant or new parents grants privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 24 September 2025.

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. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The aim of the creative projects is to offer early support for parents/families in Kent in the perinatal mental health period. This enables them to access local support which include group activities to support them to engage and connect with other parents, to increase social networks and reduce feelings of social isolation, leading to longer term peer connections and an improvement in perinatal mental health.

To help:

recognise and share what can impact perinatal mental health.
learn and share self-help techniques for perinatal mental health and wellbeing, that can be used beyond the life of the programme and group sessions
reduce social isolation - connecting people within the activity and to local and wider networks and activities which keep people well
identify and build a circle of support
signpost parents to wider support and information
partner’s wellbeing - share ways that the whole family can support each other
prevent an escalation of low level perinatal mental health challenges at an early point in the perinatal period.
collect outcome data GAD7 Anxiety Test Questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Mothers Object Relations Scales (MORS) Perinatal mental health screening or WEMWBS) to measure change in mental health and wellbeing in mothers who access the group

Grants will commence with mobilisations starting on 25 November 2025, with the delivery of creative projects groups starting on the 2 January 2026, and the completion of the project on 31 March 2026. The budget for this programme is based on funding from the KCC Family Hubs Programme grant.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In order to manage the Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Groups Grant Scheme, we collect the following personal information (that relates to your business) when you provide it to us:

Personal information for example, first, and last name, job title, address of business.
Contact details such as, email address, telephone number, postal address.
Financial information, for example, annual accounts, financial statements.
Business case for example, reasons for applying for the grant.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

enable us to answer questions that you have asked about Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Groups Grant and to answer questions that you have asked about other sources of funding
provide you with Peer Support and assistance during the development of your application to the Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Groups Grant Scheme
process and assess grant applications
administer and manage any grants that are awarded
carry out and fulfil a grant agreement between us and the grantee
carry out financial checks.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal data

We rely on the following provision as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal information:

Article 6(1)(e) - processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal information for:

up to 6 years if you contact us (by email, telephone or by letter) to keep a record of that correspondence for future reference.
6 years from the date of the last payment of the grant at which point your data will be permanently deleted. If your application is unsuccessful, your completed application will be stored for 6 years and then permanently deleted.

Read our retention schedule for more information.

Who we share your personal information with

We require your personal information to enable us to provide grants for Perinatal Mental Health Peer Support Groups. Without this information we are unable to process your application for funding. Additionally, we would not be able to award your business a grant, as processing of your personal information is required to carry out and fulfil a contract (the grant agreement) between us and the grantee.

Your information will be accessible by commissioners, public health specialists and consultants, finance, panel representatives, and business peer support staff who working on grants. Panel representatives will be a small group of internal staff who will be reviewing received grant applications. They will be required to sign Conflict of Interest forms and confidentiality agreements.

High level information may be seen by elected members of the council. We will also share basic information on grant recipients (amounts/name of group/purpose) with our staff, however this will be anonymised information only.

We only share your personal information to third parties where:

other organisations are part of the match funding in respect of your application. For example funding organisations, third party IT suppliers, NHS Providers, Family Hub wider workforces
to confirm accuracy of information you have provided in respect of your application, for example if you tell us that your project is exempt from VAT, we may ask HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to confirm the exemption.

We will only share personal data that is relevant and necessary.

Each organisation listed above will ensure they have the relevant agreements in place to be able to process your personal information.

The council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. We may use any of the information you provided for the prevention and detection of fraud. We may also share information with other bodies that are responsible for auditing or administering public funds, including the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office requires councils to participate in data matching exercises to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud.

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.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR you have a number of rights which you can access 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
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:

object to how we are using your information
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
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, read 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, 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.

Who to 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.

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.