Leeds City Council takes its obligations under the Data Protection legislation very seriously. When you receive Adult Social Care Services, we collect your personal information in order for us to help and support you, facilitate your care and where needed, protect you from harm. As an example, the use of your NHS number allows Health and Social Care staff to identify you correctly, helping to ensure you receive safe and efficient care. The information you provide will be subject to rigorous measures and procedures to make sure that it cannot be seen, accessed or disclosed to anyone who should not see it.
Usually, we collect and hold your information to enable us to comply with a legal obligation, or because we are acting in the public interest or exercising a public task in our official authority. Our service also needs to use sensitive personal data relating to you (also called special category data) which requires more protection by us to keep it safe. Leeds City Council are the owner (data controller) of this information and therefore obliged to fully comply with the relevant Data Protection laws and regulations.
How we use your information
- Where we need to share your personal information we will do this in line with the law (the main laws are the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation).
- We will make you aware of this, wherever possible, and we will make a note of your views.
- We will tell you why we need to share your information, who we will share it with and the purposes for which it will be used.
- We will only share the information that we feel is relevant for these purposes.
- We will make sure that your information is kept secure and safe and is only seen by the staff who are supposed to see it.
- We will ensure that secure methods are used when it is sent to other organisations.
- We are required by law to keep your information for varying lengths of time depending on individual circumstances. This information is set out in our retention schedule.
More information can be given to you on request or can be found on our website, Leeds.gov.uk
Who will we share your information with
Your information will be shared with others, where required, to meet your social care needs and we will always be open and transparent about this. For example, your information may be shared with relevant organisations (non-exhaustive list), such as:
- the NHS (such as GPs, District Nurses and Community Matrons)
- homecare, day services/activities providers
- providers of residential, respite and nursing care services (a number of providers maybe be contacted to help decide who is best placed to help you and meet your needs)
- other departments within Leeds City Council
- voluntary and community organisations
- providers of residential, respite and nursing care services (a number of providers maybe be contacted to help decide who is best placed to help you and meet your needs)
- other departments within Leeds City Council
- voluntary and community organisations.
Also in the interests of protecting public funds or reporting purposes to make the services of Leeds better, your information may be shared with relevant government agencies (such as Department for Work and Pensions or Office of the Public Guardian).
What if I don’t want you to share my information
If you decide that we cannot share your information, this will not stop you from receiving care, but may limit how we are able to support you. To help you decide, we will discuss with
you how this may affect our ability to provide you with care, and any other options you have. However there may be circumstances where we need to use and share your information without your agreement, where we are legally required to do so.
What are my rights
You have rights in respect of the information we hold about you, including the right to ask for access to your information or to withdraw from this process.
Further information in respect of your rights is available on our Your privacy rights page. To exercise any of your rights,
please speak to your social worker in the first instance or contact dpfoi@leeds.gov.uk, any One Stop Centre or send to Information Management & Governance, PO Box 837, LS1 9PZ, and we will advise you of the procedure.
Who should I contact
You can contact the council’s Data Protection Officer at dpo@leeds.gov.uk or at the above postal address.
Further information in respect of your privacy and information is available on our Privacy notice page. A paper copy of this information is available on request. In addition
you can contact the Information Commissioner at www.ico.org.uk.
