Infant Feeding and Perinatal Mental Health Communications Review privacy notice
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 3 November 2026.
We respect 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. We are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018 and are the controller of that information.
We have commissioned Works For All Ltd to carry out research with families and relevant staff across Kent. The research will review how people access and understand information about infant feeding, perinatal mental health, bonding and parent-infant relationships, and will help us improve future communications and support. Works For All Ltd acts as our data processor for this work.
For questions about this research, contact our Public Health Commissioning team at infantfeeding@kent.gov.uk .
Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.
Personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
When you take part in a questionnaire, interview, focus group, workshop or informal research conversation, we may collect:
- age range
- gender
- ethnicity
- the broad area or Kent district where you live or work
- whether you are a parent, carer, co-parent, partner, family member, person planning or expecting a baby, or a member of staff or stakeholder
- pregnancy stage or your child’s age band
- your views and experiences of infant feeding information, perinatal mental health language, bonding, parent-infant relationships and local services
- contact details where needed to arrange for you to take part in the research; your contact details are kept separately, are not included in research reports and are not shared with us.
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 you provide about your health, disability, mental health, pregnancy or maternity, race or ethnicity, and other sensitive experiences that you choose to share, which may include domestic abuse, trauma, bereavement or substance use.
Information is normally collected directly from you by Works For All Ltd. With your agreement, relevant services or community organisations may pass your contact details to Works For All Ltd so that the research team can contact you about taking part.
Participation is voluntary, and we will only collect information that is necessary and proportionate for the research. You may choose which questions to answer and may stop participating at any time. If you do not provide information needed for a particular research activity, the research team may be unable to include you in that activity.
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information to:
- understand how families and staff access, receive and use information
- identify gaps, barriers, duplication and examples of good practice
- assess accessibility, readability, cultural relevance and inclusivity
- understand how people respond to language about perinatal mental health, bonding and parent-infant relationships
- monitor whether the research includes a broad range of Kent communities
- produce anonymised statistics, themes, quotations and case studies
- develop a communications framework, recommendations and other anonymised outputs to support service planning and commissioning.
Reasons we can collect and use your personal data
When we collect and use your personal data, we rely on the following lawful basis:
- 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 or share your special category personal data (such as health information) we rely upon the following lawful basis:
- Article 9(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
We rely on the ‘equality of opportunity or treatment’ condition in the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(g) to process your special category data.
We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category data when relying on the conditions above, we:
- have an Adult Social Care and Health Appropriate Policy Document in place when using your special category data. This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 months after we cease to use it
- 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
Works For All Ltd will keep identifiable information only for as long as it is needed to arrange and complete your participation, then securely delete it. All data will be deleted by Works For All by the end of the contract (31st March 2027). They will not share identifiable information with us. We may retain anonymised findings, reports and outputs for service planning, commissioning and audit purposes.
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, read the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.
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
You may withdraw from the research by contacting Works For All Ltd using the contact details provided in your participant information. The research team will explain the point after which information has been anonymised and can no longer be linked to you or removed from the combined analysis.
Choosing not to take part, or withdrawing before your information is anonymised, will not affect any services or support you receive.
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 .
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 Information Commissioner's website or telephone 0303 123 1113.
Read our corporate privacy statement.