Oral Health Cohort Study (3 to 4-year-olds) privacy notice
We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated on 11 May 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. When we do so, we are regulated under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018). We are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information.
The Dental Epidemiology Cohort Study is delivered by Kent Community Health Foundation Trust (KCHFT), on our behalf. What we are doing in this instance is a cohort study, and every 2 years we conduct a cohort study/epidemiology survey.
This study enables us to collect information on the health of people’s teeth and mouths (their oral health), which can help guide the oral health promotion activity we provide. This year, the study will be collecting information about the oral health of 3 to 4 year old children across 50 settings countywide. At present, these include the districts of:
- Thanet
- Gravesham
- Dartford
- Swale
- Maidstone
- Canterbury
- Folkestone and Hythe.
Parents and carers who have a child aged 3 to 4 years in participating early years settings in these districts will be asked if they give permission (called a ‘common law consent’) for their child to take part in the study and have a brief dental check (examination) at their early years settings, to take place between September 2026 to July 2027.
Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.
The personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
If you give permission to your child taking part in the study and having a dental check, we will collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
- Your child’s personal details, including their name, address (including postcode), date of birth, sex, early years setting name and district and class.
- Your full name (as the child’s parent or carer) and, if you choose to provide it, your contact telephone number so that we can contact you to offer advice if there are any concerns about your child’s teeth or mouth.
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 about your child’s racial or ethnic origin.
- Information relating to your child’s oral health (such as, the number of decayed, filled, or missing teeth that they may have).
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information to:
- plan, organise and deliver the study, and make sure we only carry out a dental check on children who are aged 3 to 4 years at the time of the study
- contact you to offer advice and support if we find any concerns about your child’s teeth or mouth during the dental check
- better understand children’s oral health across Thanet, Gravesham, Dartford and Swale districts and how this may have changed over the last 2 years
- plan and improve how we can best support children and families to care for their mouths and teeth.
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 data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes.
- Article 6(1)(c) - processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.
- 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 your ‘special categories of personal data’ (such as health, race, ethnicity), we rely on the following legal basis:
- Article 9(2)(a) - the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.
- Article 9(2)(h) - processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.
We rely on the health or social care purposes and public health conditions from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article 9(2)(h) to process your special category data.
We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category and/or criminal convictions data when relying on the conditions above:
- We 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
In line with the NHS Records Management Code of Practice, we will hold and use your child’s personal information until their 25th birthday, after which the information is made inaccessible to system users or securely destroyed. Any paper copies will be securely destroyed after 1 year.
We will hold your telephone number, when you provide it to us, for 1 year after which time this information will be securely destroyed.
Who we share your personal information with
In the course of working with you, we may collect information from, or share it, with some of the following third parties:
- Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) will be conducting the Dental Epidemiology Study on our behalf. KCHFT will remove as much as possible of the identifiable information that you provide.
We will also share a limited, de-identified data set with Kent Public Health Observatory (part of Kent County Council) who will be analysing the study results.
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.
Transferring your information outside of the UK
KCHFT uses WordPress as part of processing your personal data, which is hosted using Microsoft Azure cloud services, within the EU. This means that we will transfer your data outside of the UK to the EU for processing. This is based on an adequacy decision by the Secretary of State/safeguards prescribed by the UK GDPR. More information can be found on the ICO’s website.
Your rights
Under the 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 Commissioners 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, 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, 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 kentchft.oralhealthkent@nhs.net.
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.
You can 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.