Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS) privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and was last updated on 26 June 2026.

We respect your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal and special category 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.

View an easy read version of the Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS) privacy notice (PDF, 617.9 KB).

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. Our Data Protection Officer is Benjamin Watts.

The Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS) has been designed to offer specialist targeted help for families in Kent who have been referred and need specialist support to help improve the parent infant relationship and bonding.

Bonding is the term used to refer to the process of parents forming an emotional connection to their baby. Attachment is the reciprocal process by which a baby forms an emotional connection to its parents or caregivers.

Healthy parent-infant relationships enable babies and toddlers to feel safe and secure, ready to play, explore and learn. Children who have had good early relationships start early education and school best equipped to be able to make friends and learn.

The Parent and Infant Relationship Service is for birthing women, expectant dads and partners, new parents and primary caregivers, (including parents, foster carers, grandparents, or others who may be in this role) with infants up to the age of two, and for families experiencing early difficulties whose needs cannot be met by universal services such as Health Visitors alone.

The service focuses on strengthening the relationships between babies and their caregivers to:

• improve the mental health of caregivers
• support babies’ early development and wellbeing
• improve outcomes for families.

The service is delivered by a specialist team, comprising of a range clinical specialist such as psychologist/psychotherapist/specialist practitioners who are experts in parent infant mental health, for families identified and referred in need of specialist help that cannot be met by other services.

Referral to the service will be made through a range of sources, including health visitors, midwifery, mental health support, infant feeding advisors with specialist breast feeding support, all of whom will have a good understanding of the parent infant relationship service and what it offers. Referrals may also be made by domestic abuse services.

You have a choice as to whether you agree to the referral agency making a referral to the service.

A specialist in-depth professional assessment will be conducted by the parent and infant relationship service following referral to provide the right level of service to you.

Level 2 specialist interventions are interactive sessions to support positive and helpful discussion that promote learning and good outcomes for parents and caregivers to interact and respond to their baby/infant. The level 2 interventions will provide group work to help strengthen the parent infant relationship. Examples may include:

• Video Interaction Guidance which is conducted under appropriate supervision from accredited practitioners within the team. Video Interaction Guidance is a way of looking at video clips of parent/infant interacting. It supports an understanding of communication. This provides a process for building communication and interaction skills.
• Watch Me Play is a way to help parents or caregivers to enjoy being with their infant and interacting with them as they play. This approach promotes hands on child led play and supports parents and caregivers to reflect on how it felt to be with the child as they play.
• Circle of security is an attachment-based group intervention designed to help parents or caregivers understand and meet infant’s emotional needs, fostering secure attachments. The intervention includes video clips, discussion, feedback and hands on activities.

Level 3 is an individual tailored specialist therapeutic intervention for families whose needs cannot or have not been met by a level 2 intervention. This may include groups, one to one session, or a combination of both, as per your needs and wishes.

This service will also support training and development of the Kent workforce to:

• increase in knowledge and confidence in the Kent workforce in identifying and supporting parent infant relationships
• improve in system working and understanding of parent infant relationship and having parent infant relationship trained practitioners.

The service provides telephone consultation, information and guidance to eligible Kent practitioners, providing advice and guidance on the families and caregivers they support, including Kent and Medway Partnership NHS Trust.

The service also provides specialist parent infant mental health case consultation for members of the workforce who are offering programmes of sensitive evidenced- based parent infant relationship interventions below.

The personal information we collect and use

The Real Group will process personal data on our behalf. Parents and caregivers will be provided with clear and concise information which will include asking parents and caregivers to agree to being referred to the service. Only information considered proportionate for care, safeguarding, and service delivery is collected.

In the course of delivering the Parent and Infant Relationship Service, we will collect the following personal information when it is provided by the referrer or yourself. We will collect:

• parent or care givers personal data (such as your name, address, contact details, date of birth, NHS number, GP and gender
• your infant’s personal data (such as name, date of birth, NHS Number, GP and gender
• names and dates of birth of other children in the family, their first names, relationship, general location of other significant family members (to help clinicians understand the family and support networks)
• reason for the support (to help you and your infant)
• assessment and plan information (such as further details of parent/ or carer and infant challenges and needs)
• personal information from intervention and or sessions (photos and video to show progress)
• family history.
• relevant personal and family circumstances
• Child Protection/Child in Need Status, including risk of harm to parent or infant and multi-agency safeguarding plans
• emergency contact details such as the name, phone number and relationship to the parent or carer of a close friend or relative who could be contacted in the unlikely event of an emergency or welfare concern whilst you are using the service. Emergency contact details relate to individuals who may not be direct service users, and this information is only used to contact in an emergency or safeguarding situation.

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. We will collect:

• health information about you and your baby, including information about your pregnancy, birth and or expected date of delivery, mental health and emotional wellbeing, special education needs, disabilities and any long-term medical conditions
• questionnaires which you may complete to allow the clinician to measure the extent of any anxiety, depression or your relationship with your infant, and the changes the intervention makes in these areas
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• sexual orientation
• racial or ethnic origin
• domestic abuse. This may include information about physical, emotional, psychological or financial abuse, coercive or controlling behaviour, safety concerns or risk indicators, the involvement of other agencies.

During conversations with clinicians, you may disclose to us other information which we will treat with extra care and protection. This may include information relating to financial hardship and socioeconomic information where it is relevant to the understanding of family support needs. This is information such as employment or benefit status, housing insecurity or homelessness risk, debt or financial stress, food or fuel insecurity, or access to essential household or baby items.

We may process criminal offence data where necessary to protect children and comply with statutory safeguarding duties. This includes information related to police involvement, criminal convictions or suspected offences that may affect the safety and wellbeing of a child or family.

We will also obtain personal information from other sources as follows:

• Information about your requirements from health visitors, midwives and family hubs, documented on a secure referral form and information shared as part of the consultation between referrers and the parent infant mental health service.

In the course of delivering the parent infant mental health workforce training, supervision and consultations, we will collect the following personal information when you provide it to us. We will collect:

• personal information such as your name and your work email address
• your role title and team name within your organisation
• learning and attendance records.

When you seek advice or make a referral to the service, the Real Group will collect basic details from you including your name, job role and work contact details for example, email and telephone number.

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. We will collect:

• health information (including mental health and special educational needs) and or disabilities (when it is needed to make reasonable adjustments)
• racial or ethnic origin
• sexual orientation.

We will also obtain personal information from other sources as follows:

• Information about your requirements from health visitors, midwives and family hubs, documented on a secure referral form and information shared as part of the consultation between referrers and the parent infant mental health service.

How we use your personal information

We will use your personal information to:

• plan and provide the most appropriate level of therapeutic and practical support to you and your infant
• identify safeguarding risks
• understanding factors affecting infant wellbeing and attachment
• co-ordinate care and support between different agencies
• evaluate and quality assure the parent Infant mental health services, including taking into account your feedback
• to know that the service we have commissioned is safe, effective and meets your needs
• to inform future service provision and commissioning of services
• to understand and address inequalities and equity.

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)(c) - Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, as follows:
  • The Children Act 1989 and 2004.
  • The Health and Social Care Act 2012.
• 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 legal bases:

• to comply with statutory safeguarding duties and evaluation of the service: Article 9(2)(g) - Reasons of substantial public interest. We rely on the ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk', and 'equality of opportunity or treatment’ conditions from Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article(9)(2)(g) to process your special category data
• for delivery of the service: 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 purpose’ condition from Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article(9)(2)(h) to process your special category data
• for public health monitoring and reporting under statutory obligations: Article (9)(2)(i) - Necessary for reasons of public interest in the area of public health. We rely on the ‘public health’ condition from the Data Protection Act 2018 when relying on Article (9)(2)(i) to process your special category data.

We rely on the ‘public health’ and ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ conditions from Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 to process your criminal offence data.

We take the following appropriate safeguards in respect of your special category and/or criminal offence data when relying on the conditions above:

• we have a Special Category and Criminal Records Appropriate Policy Document (Adult Social Care and Health) in place when using your special category and/or criminal records data. This policy is retained throughout the time we use your data and for 6 months after we cease to use it
• 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

Your information is kept securely in line with the retention periods set out below after which time it is securely destroyed.

Who we share your personal information with

Real Group will share your data with other agencies so that they can provide you with additional help. If they want to do that, they will ask for your agreement before doing so. This may include, but is not limited to, sharing information with:

• health teams, such as midwives, health visitors, GPs
• Family Hubs
• adult mental health teams
• housing providers
• Police
• children’s services, for example, early help and social workers
• voluntary organisations.

Safeguarding concerns may require information to be shared without agreement where there is a risk of harm or a statutory duty to act.
We may also share anonymised data with funders to prove that we are providing the service.

The Real Group will collect and analyse data and intelligence on our behalf to present evidence of the effectiveness and impact of the service. This may include summaries of your feedback of your journey, including impact of interventions and consultation provided to the workforce/system in Kent. They will also gather feedback from stakeholders so that we can improve the service. This data and information will be shared with our Public Health consultant and specialists who lead the perinatal mental health and parent infant relationship Best Start in Life Healthy Babies programme in Kent. Your personal information will be removed from this information before it is shared.

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, contact the Information Resilience and Transparency Team at data.protection@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

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.