Infant Health Growth Focus Group privacy notice
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 13 November 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
We collect, use and are 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 Public Health department are conducting a research study to review the pathway for babies and children who are struggling to grow at the rate expected for their age. As part of the study, we would like to gather and understand parents’ thoughts and understanding around growth and if they can tell when a baby or child is not growing at the expected rate. We would also like to find out which resources parents would use if they had concerns about their child’s growth rate. Parents are voluntarily invited to participate in a focus group in order to contribute.
Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.
The personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
In the course of asking for your consent to participate, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- Your name and your signature.
We will not be collecting from you any other personal identifiable information about you as part of this study.
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information for a short period of time in order for you to ask us any questions you have about your contributions to the focus group, before your consent form is appropriately destroyed.
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
We rely on Article 6(1)(a) Consent (the individual has given clear consent for us to process their personal data for a specific purpose) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will retain your consent form for no longer than 28 days following your participation in a focus group or informal interview.
Who we share your personal information with
Your consent form will only be accessible to our Public Health department for the purpose of the study and will not be shared with anyone else.
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. 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 .
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 emailing the research lead, Amy Hooper, at amy.hooper@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
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 .
The United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation also gives you the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted via the IC website or telephone 0303 123 1113.
Read our corporate privacy statement.