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Privacy Notice and Data Protection

Privacy notice for Adult Social Care

This privacy notice is to be read in conjunction with the full privacy notice.

This privacy notice sets out how Adult Social Care at the London Borough of Sutton will use and process your information.;

What type of information is collected about you?

  • contact details; including name, address, email address, telephone number
  • date of birth
  • national identifiers such as; NHS number and NI numbers
  • information about your family and people who care for you,
  • information about people who you care for
  • Information about people who might legally represent you (for example, a Lasting Power of Attorney or Deputy appointed by the Court of Protection)
  • IP address and information regarding what pages are accessed and when
  • lifestyle, social and personal circumstances
  • the services you receive
  • financial details for purposes of receiving or making payments and calculating how much you might have to pay towards some services we provide or organise for you
  • employment details
  • housing information relating to the type of property you live in, whether you own or rent it, and whether it is suitable for your needs.
  • visual images, personal appearance and behaviour

We may also collect sensitive personal data that may include:

  • physical or mental health details
  • details about help you might need looking after yourself or your house
  • racial or ethnic origin
  • gender and sexual orientation
  • Languages you speak and how you prefer to communicate
  • offences (including alleged offences)
  • religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
  • criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
  • sections of the Mental Health Acts that may have applied to you

We need your information for the following services and functions:

  • The provision of direct adult social care
  • To safeguard vulnerable adults
  • Participation in the National Fraud initiative
  • Social Care Assessments
  • Mental Health Act Assessments
  • Carers Assessments
  • Occupational Therapy and Disabled Facilities Grants Assessments
  • Safeguarding Adults Services
  • Care services delivered directly by the Council
  • Management of care services provided by other organisations and businesses providing care
  • Occupational Therapy Equipment
  • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Assessments
  • Participate in the Early Help Troubled Families programme

Who your information may be shared with:

  • Care providers
  • Health partners
  • the voluntary sector
  • the Home Office
  • the Cabinet Office
  • Fraud department
  • Royal Marsden Community Services
  • Child social services
  • HM Courts and Tribunals Service
  • Other providers of direct care services

Sutton Health and Care Integrated Services

Sutton Health and Care is an integrated model of care - supported by a membership of organisations including:

  • Sutton GP Services Limited
  • Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
  • London Borough of Sutton
  • Sutton Community Services
  • St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

With the aim of bringing together one model of care for the population of Sutton, there are two key workstreams:

  1. Preventative and Proactive care. Proactive care in the community preventing unplanned hospital admissions.
  2. Reactive care. Direct support to elderly patients admitted into hospital.

To support this work, SHC organisations listed above will identify people who would benefit from being supported in this integrated way of working. Lists of clients will be shared to identify people that are currently being supported by more than one organisation or those that should be. For example, staff from Adult Social Services and Community Services in Wallington will work in a joined up way to provide proactive direct care. To support this, lists of Wallington clients will be shared between Adult Social Services and Community services on a regular basis. People known to both organisations, will be supported in a joined-up way. Also in St Helier hospital there is an integrated team representing SHC organisations to support people in the hospital. This team will work together and share information to understand how to best support the most effective discharge from hospital. The integration of these services means that direct care is delivered much more efficiently.

The legal basis for processing your information

At the point of collecting information from you, the law says we must tell you which laws we are relying on. Adult Social Care rely on the Article 6 and 9 conditions of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016, to allow us to collect and use your information for the purposes of providing care to you. Article 6(1)(e) necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority.Article 9(2)(h) necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services. Generally speaking the information that Adult Social Care holds about you is also subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. This means that we must not disclose your information outside of the care team without your consent. However information can be disclosed without your consent in the following circumstances:

  • where disclosure is necessary to safeguard you, or other people, or is in the public interest
  • where there is a legal duty to do so, for example a court order

London Care Record

We are working with South West London Health and Care Partnership to improve the way we connect your care across South West London. Health and care professionals are able to access your records from other NHS services when you need them to. This makes it quicker and easier for you when you visit them.

At the moment, each care organisation has a different system for managing your records, and there is no way for the information to be shared electronically when it is needed by the team looking after you. The London Care Record means that people involved in your care will be able to immediately see important information about you through a secure system. This means everyone involved in your care will have the best information available to them to be able to make the best decisions for your treatment.

Your hospital records can be shared with other health and care professionals when needed, along with your GP, community, mental health and social care records. As The London Care Record is developed further, we will connect up other providers across London.

Do I have a choice?

If you are happy for your information to be shared in this way, then you don’t need to do anything.

If you do not want your Adult Social Care information to be shared as part of The London Care Record , you have the right to opt out, and you can do this by speaking to your Social Worker, and updating the comments section on the final page of the Adult Social Care Information Sharing Declaration Form.

Deciding to opt out of The London Care Record

Staff involved in your care will always do their best to provide you with safe, efficient care whether or not you agree to share your information to The London Care Record. The information below has been provided to enable you to make an informed decision, in the event that you do wish to opt out.

What is The London Care Record?

The London Care Record provides a system that makes existing information held in electronic record systems across a number of different health and care services visible to the team looking after you anywhere that you receive care. The system does not collect new information and does not replace any of the existing care record systems, it just shares important information between them in a read-only view.

What is the purpose of The London Care Record?

Up until recently, your health and care records moved around by letter, email, or phone, and only in a few instances, electronically between systems. This delayed information sharing,  impacted decision making and slowed down treatment. By agreeing to share your information, authorised staff involved in your care will have faster access to important information about you, on a need-to-know basis. This will help them provide you with the most timely and efficient care, especially when care is unplanned or in an emergency.

How will sharing this information benefit me?

Sharing information between the different teams who look after you will improve the safety and quality of your care, and the speed with which you can be assessed.

What does it mean if I opt out?

The information shared via The London Care Record could not only save you and the professionals caring for you time, but it could also one day be lifesaving. The more the people looking after you know about your history, the better able they are to make the right decisions about your care. If you choose to opt out, the staff treating you will not be able to view the information held about you in other systems, and may not be aware of important information that is needed in order to treat you safely and effectively. They will have to find this information the old fashioned way by telephoning, emailing and sending by paper, which will be much slower and may cause delay. However, the choice to opt out is yours. The opt out process is simple and should you change your mind in the future, it is easy to opt back in again if you want to.

How do I opt out?

If you do not want to share your Adult Social Care record as part of The London Care Record, please speak to your Social Worker, and update the Comments box on the final page of the Information Sharing Declaration form to tell us that you wish to opt out ( Your Social Worker can provide you with a copy of this form). Your Social worker will then make a note of this on your Social Care file, and will make sure that your Adult Social Care record is not shared as part of The London Care Record

Please be aware, the objection will only apply to Adult Social Care information.

If you do not want your health information to be shared as part of The London Care Record, you will need to contact your GP Practice or the Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) at the hospital where you are receiving treatment to arrange this.

Want to find out more?

To find out more please visit the South West London Digital Transformation website or speak to your Social worker, who can talk to you more about this. 

National Data Opt- Out

How the NHS and Care Services use your information-

The London Borough of Sutton is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public. Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment. The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

  • Improving the quality and standards of care provided
  • research into the development of new treatments
  • preventing illness and diseases
  • monitoring safety
  • planning services

All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law. Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isnt needed. You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

You can change your mind about your choice at any time. To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes.

Caldicott Guardians

A Caldicott Guardian is a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of people’s Social Care information and making sure it is used properly.

The Caldicott Guardian is responsible for ensuring the lawful and ethical processing of personal information, both within the Council and when it is shared with other organisations. 

All local authorities which provide social services must have a Caldicott Guardian, and their details must be published on the National Register of Caldicott Guardians.

Within Social Care the Assistant Director for Adult Social Care and the Assistant Director for Children's Social Care and Safeguarding are the registered Caldicott Guardians for their respective areas of responsibility.

The Caldicott Guardians can be contacted using the email addresses below:

CaldicottGuardianAdults@Sutton.gov.uk  

CaldicottGuardianChildrens@Sutton.gov.uk