Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme privacy notice
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 20 March 2026.
We respect your privacy and are 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 for the purposes of those laws. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.
The Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Programme sits within our Public Health and is responsible for delivery the local Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Fund
We know that in the right hands, a little can go a long way, so we seek ideas on how to improve the mental health and wellbeing of residents across Kent and Medway and grant funding to successful applicants. The two objectives for the Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Fund are to:
- test innovative ideas and develop evidence of what works
- support grassroots projects to continue to support their communities.
Suicide Prevention Training Workshops (delivered by Mid Kent Mind)
In order to fulfil our priority to provide suicide prevention training workshops to those living and working in Kent and Medway, we commission a provider called Mid Kent Mind to offer this service to residents of Kent and Medway.
Specialist Suicide Bereavement Support (delivered by Amparo)
In order to fulfil our priority to provide specialist support to those bereaved by suicide, we commission a provider called Listening Ear (Amparo) to offer this service to residents of Kent and Medway.
Personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund
In order to manage the Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Fund we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- Personal information (for example; first, and last name, job title, address of business).
- Contact details (for example; email address, telephone number, postal address).
- Financial information (for example; annual accounts and financial statements).
- Business case (for example; reasons for applying for the grant).
Suicide Prevention Training Workshops
Personal information is collected by Mid Kent Mind in order to facilitate booking onto the training courses
This information includes name, telephone number, email address, and any additional needs that the individual feels that Mid Kent Mind need to be aware of. The individual also provides their consent for their anonymised information to be shared with funders at the point of booking, and completing the online form means that confirmation of booking can be sent.
Read the Mid Kent Mind privacy notice.
Mid Kent Mind does not share personal information with us, only anonymised information which is collected for the purpose of contract management.
In order to manage the Mid Kent Mind contract, Mid Kent Mind shares with us
- the number of delegates that attend the suicide prevention training workshops
- the confidence and knowledge % pre and post training
- the number of delegates attending per district of Kent and Medway
- details of the delegates attending the workshops that have come from public, private, voluntary or as an individual
- examples of anonymised feedback from delegates, where supplied.
- details of Mid Kent Mind’s promotional activity within the previous quarter, and planned activity for the upcoming quarter
- detailed case studies (usually one or two provided per quarter). These provide further details of how the attendees found the training and usually refers to a 3 month follow up (if the training has been used in a real-life situation), but they do not include any identifiable data.
Specialist Suicide Bereavement Support (delivered by Amparo, part of Listening Ear)
Personal information is collected by Amparo in order to deliver specialist support to people bereaved by suicide in Kent and Medway. This information includes name, telephone number, e-mail address, home address, date of birth, NHS number and any additional needs that the individual feels that Amparo need to be aware of in order to deliver their service.
Read the Listening Ear’s privacy notice.
Amparo does not share personal information with us, only anonymised information which is collected for the purpose of contract management.
In order to manage the Amparo contract, Amparo shares with us the:
- nnumber of referrals received into the service, and their sources (for example, Kent Police)
- number of referrals per age bracket
- number of referrals per district of Kent and Medway
- number of referrals per relationship to the deceased
- number of telephone and face to face appointments attended
- number of cases closed per quarter
- number of service users with completed paired outcomes
- examples of anonymised feedback from service users, where supplied
- details of Amparo’s promotional activity within the previous quarter
- detailed case studies (usually one or two provided per quarter). These provide further details of the support delivered and will contain information about a service user’s individual circumstances, but they do not include any identifiable data.
How we use your personal information
Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund
We use your personal information to:
- enable us to answer questions that you have asked about the relevant grant scheme
- answer questions that you have asked about other sources of funding
- provide you with support during the process of application to the relevant 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.
Suicide Prevention Training Workshops
Personal information is collected by Mid Kent Mind in order to deliver the suicide prevention training workshops and to facilitate booking onto the training courses (for example, name, email address), so confirmation of booking can be sent.
Mid Kent Mind does not share personal information with us, only anonymised information which is collected for the purpose of contract management. Examples of how we use this include:
- monitoring the number of delegates that attend the training
- monitoring the uptake of training, to help identify any additional promotional activity that may be required.
- reviewing the performance of the delivery of the contract against the agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Specialist Suicide Bereavement Support (delivered by Amparo, part of Listening Ear)
Personal information is collected by Amparo in order to deliver specialist support to people bereaved by suicide in Kent and Medway. Details of this are included in their own privacy notice (see 'information collected by us' section above).
Amparo does not share personal information with us, only anonymised information which is collected for the purpose of contract management. Examples of how we use this include:
- monitoring the number of delegates that attend the training
- monitoring the uptake of training, to help identify any additional promotional activity that may be required.
- reviewing the performance of the delivery of the contract against the agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
We rely on the following provision as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data:
- Article 6(1)(a) - you (the data subject) have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes.
We rely on explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a) as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your special categories of personal data.
How long your personal data will be kept
Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund
We will hold your personal information for as long as necessary.
We will hold your personal information for:
- up to 12 years if you contact us via the application Forms page to apply for grant funding [FN6.2.1]
- 12 years from the date of the last payment of the grant, at which point your data will be permanently deleted. [FN6.2.1]
The criteria for determining retention periods are statutory or other industry requirements, legal liability or other legal requirements and best business practice. For more information read our retention schedule.
Suicide Prevention Training Workshops
We will hold the anonymised reports sent over by Mid Kent Mind for as long as necessary. This is usually:
- 6 years for adults
- for Children and Young People, the data is held up until the individual turns 18 years, at which point the 6 and 1-year retention period kicks in from there.
Read the Mid Kent Mind privacy notice for their retention period.
Specialist Suicide Bereavement Support (delivered by Amparo, part of Listening Ear)
We will hold the anonymised reports sent over by Amparo for as long as necessary. This is usually:
- 6 + 1 years for adults
- for Children and Young People, the data is held up until the individual turns 18 years at which point the 6 and 1-year retention period kicks in from there.
Read the Listening Ear’s privacy notice for their retention period.
Who we share your personal information with
Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund
We require your personal information to enable us to provide activities designed to support the Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Suicide Prevention or relevant grant. 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 support staff (our employees) who are working on grants. Panel representatives will be a small group of internal staff and a small number of carefully selected external colleagues and lived experience who will be reviewing received grant applications.
High level information may be seen by elected members of the council. We will also share basic information on grant recipients (such as amounts, name of group and purpose), however this will be anonymised information only.
We only share your personal information with third parties 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.
Suicide Prevention Training Workshops
Mid Kent Mind, as outlined in their privacy notice, collects data about delegates booking on to the training courses. This includes names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and any additional needs that the individual feels Mid Kent Mind need to be aware of. To book onto the courses, delegates must provide consent for their anonymised information to be shared with the funder. This is for monitoring and statistical purposes, as outlined in the privacy notice. Read the Mid Kent Mind privacy notice.
We (the Suicide Prevention team) are sent the anonymised information from Mid Kent Mind to manage the contract of this commissioned service by using the information to review performance.
Without these reports we are unable to assess the effectiveness of the service or identify whether any further promotional activity needs to take place. We also need this information to identify the need for further delivery and recommissioning activity. These reports and subsequent reviews will be accessible by commissioners, Public Health specialists and consultants, finance colleagues and other key stakeholders. High level information may be seen by elected members of the council. These reports do not contain any personal, identifiable data.
Specialist Suicide Bereavement Support (delivered by Amparo, part of Listening Ear)
We collate the anonymised information from Amparo to manage the contract of this commissioned service by using the information to review performance.
Without these reports we are unable to assess the effectiveness of the service or identify whether any further promotional activity needs to take place. We also need this information to identify the need for further delivery and recommissioning activity. These reports and subsequent reviews will be accessible by commissioners, Public Health specialists and consultants, finance colleagues and other key stakeholders. High level information may be seen by elected members of the council. These reports do not contain any personal, identifiable data.
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 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
- in the instance of being referred to MaPS for the MAN service, you will be entitled to withdraw your consent to the referral at any time by contacting the KSAS team. The withdrawal of consent would not affect the lawfulness of the processing that took place before its withdrawal.
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 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.
To withdraw your consent, email suicideprevention@kent.gov.uk . Your grant application for the Kent and Medway Better Mental Health and Wellbeing Community Fund will proceed no further if you withdraw consent.
Keeping your personal information secure
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used/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.