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Kent Personal Assistants (PA) Register Privacy Notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 27 July 2026.

Kent County Council 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

Kent County Council 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 Adults Direct Payment Team within Adult Social Care supports people who choose to receive Direct Payments. Direct Payments are funds provided by the Council to enable people to arrange their own care and support. The team also manages the Kent Personal Assistants Register, which stores information about Personal Assistants, including their skills and experience, to help people identify suitable support. Under The Care Act 2014, local authorities have a duty to provide information, advice and guidance to help people find suitable services and Personal Assistants.

The personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of you being on the Personal Assistants Register and subscribed to mailing list, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • personal details for example, your name and contact details such as email address
  • your preferences for example, preferred working areas in Kent, hours available, what support you can provide
  • your skills and experiences for example, qualifications, type of experience, languages spoken

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

  • add you to our mailing list to receive job alerts
  • send your fortnightly emails about available PA job opportunities
  • contact you about specific PA vacancies that may match your preferences
  • compile statistics such as the number of Personal Assistants on the register, to provide a clearer picture of the service we provide
  • respond to feedback, complaints and compliments.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

When we collect your personal data, we rely on the following legal bases:

  • Article 6(1)(a) - the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose (joining the PA register and subscribing to the mailing list)
  • 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 (duty under The Care Act 2014 to provide information, advice and guidance to help people find suitable services and Personal Assistants).

How long your personal data will be kept

We will only hold your personal information for as long as necessary. We will only hold your information whilst you wish to remain on the Personal Assistants Register and whilst you wish to remain subscribed to our mailing list. Our retention periods can be viewed in our retention schedule (AS2.3.09 and AS2.3.10). When you tell us you no longer wish to remain on the Personal Assistants Register or no longer wish to remain subscribed to the mailing list, we will stop processing your data.

Any updates or changes or new entries to our retention schedule are updated on a quarterly basis, and therefore, the current version linked above, may not list the most up to date retention periods until the next publication.

Who we share your personal information with

We only share your personal information within the Adult Social Care Direct Payments Team for the purposes of adding you to the Personal Assistants Register and the mailing list and ensuring these remain up to date.

We do not share the Personal Assistants Register and the mailing list with any other teams in Adult Social Care, or other teams in KCC or any people that we may provide care and support to.

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 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, 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 dprecruitment@kent.gov.uk to unsubscribe to the mailing list or to remove yourself from the Personal Assistants Register. Your information will no longer be used for either the mailing list and/or the Personal Assistants Register after you have withdrawn your consent.

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 on the ICO website or telephone 0303 123 1113.

For further information read our privacy statement.