Participants of the Kent Specialist Infant Feeding Support Review privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review and it was last updated in September 2025.

Kent County Council (KCC) 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.

Read an easy read version of this privacy notice (PDF, 395.0 KB).

Who we are

KCC 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.

KCC has commissioned Better Breastfeeding Ltd to undertake this project on our behalf.

Personal information we collect and use

Information collected by us

In the course of this project we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

• Name and email address (only if you choose to provide these so that we can contact you about follow-up opportunities).
• Postcode, age, education level.
• Where and when you gave birth.

We also collect the following ‘special category data’ when you provide it to us:

• Ethnicity.
• Accessibility or dietary needs relevant to your participation.
• Your experience of infant feeding, which may include details of health conditions.

We only collect personal information directly from you.

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

• administer the project, for example contacting you about sessions or engagement opportunities;
• ensure that our sessions are accessible and inclusive;
• ensure the project includes participants from a range of backgrounds;
• analyse the information provided to inform findings and recommendations.

We will publish the results of the study, but this will only include a limited, de-identified dataset and will not identify any individuals.

Reasons we can collect and use your personal data

We rely on the following lawful bases under UK GDPR:

• Article 6(1)(a) - The individual has given clear consent to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
• Article 9(2)(a) - The data subject has given their explicit consent for one or more specified purposes.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will hold your personal and special category data for the duration of the project and up to 6 months after we present our findings (expected until September 2026). After this time personal data will be securely deleted.

We may keep anonymised data (which cannot identify you) for up to 5 years where we have a specific use for it, such as providing examples for educational purposes.

Read our retention schedule for more information.

Who we share your personal information with

The information you provide will be collected and held by Better Breastfeeding Ltd on secure servers.

Better Breastfeeding will only share a limited, de-identified dataset with KCC, the ICB and maternity and neonatal trusts in Kent and Medway, summarising the key themes that emerge from the survey and participation discussions.

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.

Transfers outside the UK

Better Breastfeeding Ltd uses Microsoft 365 (with servers in Ireland and the Netherlands) and Dovetail (with servers in Ireland). Data will not be transferred outside the UK or European Economic Area.

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.

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 writing to us or contacting us through email or phone:

If you decide that you no longer want to be involved, we will try to remove any quotes from you that we may otherwise have used. However, your contributions to workshops will have been anonymised and findings may have been published and so it may not be possible to remove all of your input from the work.

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, through email or post at:

The UK GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner who may be contacted on 03031 231113.

Read our corporate privacy statement.