Privacy Policy | Active Care

We ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on how and why we collect personal data, store, use and share your personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us and other organisations in the event you have a complaint. Please see the section on ‘Your rights’ for more information.

Introduction

We provide care and support to people living in their own homes and also to those in care homes and supported living. In order that we can provide care and support services to you we need to collect and use certain personal information about you.

Personal information means any information about you from which you can be identified, but it does not include information where your identity has been removed (anonymous data).

As the ‘controller’ of personal information, we are responsible for how that data is managed. The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which applies in the United Kingdom and across the European Union, sets out our obligations to you and your rights in respect of how we manage your personal information.

The GDPR ensures that we comply with a series of data protection principles. These principles are there to protect you and they make sure that we:

Process all personal information lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
Collect personal information for a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose.
Guarantee that the personal information processed is adequate, relevant and limited to the purpose for which it was collected.
Ensure the personal information is accurate and up to date.
Retain your personal information for no longer than is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was collected.
Keep your personal information securely using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

As the ‘controller’ of your personal information, we will always follow the principles of the GDPR Regulations (EU) 2016/679

Please note when we refer to:

A “public body” we mean any organisation in the United Kingdom which delivers, commissions or reviews a public service and includes (but is not limited to) the Ombudsman, local authorities, councils, unitary authorities, clinical commissioning groups, health and social care trusts, the National Health Service as well as their arm’s length bodies and regulators.
A “social or health care professional” we mean any person who provides direct services, acts as consultant or is involved in the commission of your healthcare or social care services, including (but not limited to) your General Practitioner (GP), dental staff, pharmacists, nurses and health visitors, clinical psychologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, hospital staff, social workers and other care and support related professionals.

The personal information we collect and use in relation to people who enquire about and use our services

As a healthcare provider, Active Care & Training will need to collect some information from you so when you enquire about our care and support services and during the course of providing care and support services to you we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

your name, home address, date of birth and contact details (including your telephone number, email address) and emergency contacts (i.e. name, relationship and home and mobile numbers)
your allergies and any medical, physical or mental conditions and in particular your care needs
your likes, dislikes and lifestyle preferences (including your religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, racial or ethnic origin, health and sexuality (so far as they relate to providing you with suitable care)
credit or direct debit details (if you pay for some or all of our services using one of these methods)

Information Sharing

To make sure that we provide you with an efficient and effective service, we will sometimes need to share your information, to establish the type of care and support you need. It also allows us to design the right care package to suit your individual circumstances, including if (in future) you decide to receive care from an alternative provider.

Between our staff within our organisation ie at staff quality care meetings
With partner organisations that support the delivery of the service you may receive ie your GP, pharmacist and any individual you have nominated as your representative.
With organisation we have contracted to provide a direct care service to you ie agency staff
We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by law. This includes information required by public bodies to evidence our compliance with the applicable regulatory framework.
We are also required to share information to external social or health care professionals, including public bodies and local safeguarding groups (in some circumstances) to ensure your safety.

We will not share, sell or trade your personal information with any other third party.

We will always follow good practice and will

Discuss and agree with you what we are going to record about you
Give you a copy of any letters we are writing about you ; and
Show you what we have recorded about you, if you ask.

We also obtain personal information from other sources such as:

your allergies and any medical, physical or mental conditions and in particular your care and support needs, from any appropriate external social or health care professionals (including your GP)
your name, home address, date of birth, contact details, needs assessments and financial assessments from any appropriate external social or health care professionals (including any relevant public body regardless of whether you are publicly funded)
your likes, dislikes and lifestyle preferences (including your [religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature,][racial or ethnic origin so far as they relate to providing you with suitable care) from your family, friends and any other person you have nominated as your representative
your Attorney or Deputy (if applicable)

We use your personal information to:

prepare, review and update a suitable care plan, describing the nature and level of care and support services which you have requested we supply to you
to communicate with you, your representatives and any appropriate external social or health care professionals about your individual needs and personalise the service delivered to you
make reasonable adjustments, when required, to meet your individual needs and to ensure we have suitable facilities to ensure your safety
invoice you for the care and support services in accordance with our terms and conditions
carry out quality assurance procedures, review our service and improve our customer experience (please note that feedback can also be provided anonymously)

Questions and answers relating to our privacy notice

Do I need to provide you with information and if so why?

The provision of your medical, physical or mental condition is necessary to enable us to create a care plan and to provide you with suitable care and support services. Without this information, we will not be able to assess your care needs or provide any care services to you.

The provision of your name, home address is required so that we can arrange a care worker to attend your home to deliver the services and so that we can invoice you for the fees.

We will inform you at the point of collecting information from you, whether you are required to provide the information to us.

How long will you hold my personal information?

we will hold the personal information kept within your client file for eight years as required by law and our insurer
we will hold the personal information kept within our feedback procedure for eight years so that we can identify trends and patterns in our service
Our insurer requires that we keep the following records for at least 25 years.
Training records
Job applications
The results of DBS checks
Safeguarding risk assessments
Records of complaints and suspicions of breaches of our safeguarding policy

Why do you need my personal information?

We rely on the following grounds within the GDPR:

Article 6(1)(b) – processing is necessary for the performance of our contracts to provide individuals with care and support services
Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for us to demonstrate compliance with our regulatory framework and the law
Article 9(2)(h) – processing is necessary for the provision of social care or the management of social care systems and services as the lawful basis on which we collect and use your personal data and special category data (such as your health).

We also rely on Article 6(1)(f) of GDPR to process your personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interests, which include marketing purposes, corporate due diligence, service development and innovation. With regard to marketing purposes it may be that with your permission that we use a photograph taken at one of our events to advertise our services. It may be necessary to share your name and address in the development of a new information technology system which is being developed to restructure the ways in which we do our rotas. This is being developed with a trusted company who will also be required under GDPR regulations not to share any of your information.

What rights do I have?

Under the GDPR you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your use personal information;
access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Notice is already designed to address;
require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold;
require the erasure (i.e. deletion) of personal information concerning you, in certain situations. Please note that if you ask us to delete any of your personal information which we believe is necessary for us to comply with our contractual or legal obligations, we may no longer be able to provide care and support services to you;
receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations;
object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing;
object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you;
object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information;
otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances;
claim compensation for damages caused by our breach of any data protection laws;

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

email, call or write to us at the address below:
let us have enough information to identify you (e.g your name and address),
let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill), and
let us know the information to which your request relates, including any account or reference numbers, if you have them

How do I know you will be keeping my 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.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How do I complain if I need to?

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. However, should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by us, please contact our office at the address below. (see ‘How to contact us’ below).

If you are still unhappy following a review by our Caldicott Guardian, you can then complain to the information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website (www.ico.gov.uk)

What if I need extra help?

If you would like this notice in another format (for example: audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).

How do I contact you?

If you have any questions about this privacy notice or would like further explanation as to how your personal information is managed, please send an email to activecareandtraining@mail.com or write to us at Whitehouse Distribution Centre, Whitehouse Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP15NX. If you prefer you can call Juliette Macdonald on 01473517883

This privacy notice was published on 1st June 2018 and last updated on 24th June 2020