Information sharing to support vulnerable individuals and families including the BCP delivery to the National Supporting Families Programme 2023/24.
BCP Council and its partners are committed to working with children and families to meet Government requirements by supporting the statutory functions of the agencies involved to provide support to vulnerable individuals and families in your area (Family Help). To fulfil our obligations, it is necessary to share information with critical partners. This is important both for the delivery of our services and to evaluate their effectiveness. We want you to be confident that your information is kept safe and secure and understand how and why we use your information to support you and your family.
1. Definitions
UK GDPR:
UK General Data Protection Regulation
DPA 18:
Data Protection Act 2018
Personal data:
Any information relating to an identifiable individual such as your name, identification number, contact details. It can also be location data or online identifiers.
Special Category data:
Racial or ethnic origin, politics, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics (where used for identification) information concerning your health, sex life or sexual orientation.
2. The reasons why we use and share your information
To make informed decisions about families across the BCP region and to assure they get the help they need to address any potential disadvantages; we have to share information internally and between our partner agencies. The factors children and families struggle with could be for example debt, homelessness, mental health issues, domestic violence, parenting issues, illness or substance misuse.
The sharing has three primary aims,
- to identify families facing multiple disadvantages
- the improvement of the physical, mental, emotional, social, or economic well-being of individuals and families
- to gain a better understanding of the impact of Children’s Services intervention and therefore an improvement or targeting of appropriate support to individuals or households.
3. The information we collect and use
We get most of the personal information we use from you and from what we learn about you through your interactions with us. In order to support delivering our services for vulnerable children, young people and their families we also collect information from other sources and share information with other relevant organisations.
Data processed under those services includes personal data such as name, date of birth, criminal offence data, missing persons data, police incident data etc. and special category data such as health data.
Firstly, data is collected in line with the service objectives, that allow the collection of information to derive vulnerable families. We then use this information to produce a single view of a person for lead professionals and safeguarding professionals to access. The information within this is sensitive person level data, however it is only used at a case-by-case level and accessed primarily by BCP Council safeguarding professionals or service leads that are reviewing the need for the family or are actively working with the family.
Information is also used at an aggregated level, this gives the ability to understand the number of vulnerable people across the relevant area. This can help inform strategic planning for Children’s services and also allow the ability to map geographically the most vulnerable areas of the area for instance. This information only includes non-identifiable depersonalised data.
4. Who we share your information with
Local authorities and their relevant partner organisations are encouraged to deal with families as a whole, rather than responding to each problem, or person separately using a multi-agency approach by sharing information to allow joint up working across the area.
The information relating to you, your child or your family will be matched with information from public agencies and organisations such as the NHS, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Police, the Probation Services, Schools and Youth Offending Team to achieve the outcomes highlighted above.
The approach helps all organisations involved to identify and better understand families experiencing multiple vulnerabilities, for example by comparing data from different sources and by collating relevant data in one place which facilitates this multi-agency working by displaying a joined up single view of a child. It pulls together data from around 20 different public sector sources.
The information might also be shared with our critical relevant partner organisations from across the area which are also working with the family. This will allow professionals to connect more quickly and reduce the need for the family to explain issues multiple times.
To understand risk and vulnerability and provide early intervention and targeted support to children and families across the relevant area we may share data with the following recipients:
Partner Agencies such as:
- Commissioned Educational Providers
- NHS Services
- Police
- Fire and Rescue services
- Department for Work and Pensions
- NHS Trusts.
This might include records in relation to your social care, any involvement with the police, courts and probation, aspects relating to your employment, anti-social behaviour, violence in the home, substance misuse, educational attendance and behaviour, vulnerable children, and health issues.
All partner organisations undergo thorough due diligence to assure security standards are met as required under current UK Data Protection Law.
5. How long your information will be held
We will keep your record in accordance with national guidance and the BCP Council retention schedule and any other programme specific policies after which records and confidential information are securely destroyed.
6. Data Protection Statement
BCP Council is acting as the data controller concerning any personal information processed under any of the services provided to support vulnerable individuals and families. This is defined in the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 and means that the Council is legally responsible for ensuring that it being processed complies with data protection legislation but also that the Council determines what your data is used for and why it is collected.
All authorised staff accessing data related to our services receive training to ensure they remain aware of their responsibilities when accessing and using your personal data. They are obliged in their employment contracts to uphold confidentiality.
Data relating to supporting vulnerable individuals and families is only stored in the UK in a secure location and is not transferred to any other countries.
To provide our service, we have identified the following legal basis under the UK GDPR and legal gateways which allow us to process your data to support vulnerable individuals and families:
Lawful basis for processing under the UK GDPR:
- 6(1)(c) Legal obligation
- 6(1)(e) Public Interest/Official Authority
- 9(2)(g) Substantial Public Interest.
Legal gateways identified:
- Sections 10 and 11 of The Children’s Act 2004,
- Section 82 of The National Health Service Act 2006
- Section 1 of The Childcare Act 2006
- Section 23 and 25 of The Children’s and Families Act 2014
- Section 17, 37 and 115 of The Crime and Disorder Act 1998
- Section 11, 21, 157 and 175 of The Education Act 2002
- Section 1 of The Localism Act 2011
- Section 1 of The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
- Special Education Needs and Disability Regulations 2014
- Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Education and Skills Act 2008 (ESA 2008)
- Section 325 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003
- Section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008
- Section 248, 439, 443, 445 of the Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance July 2002.
We will not rely on your consent for the reasons outlined within this privacy notice. If consent will be considered in the future in circumstances currently not expected, you will be told about this or asked to agree to this first.
We are always committed to protect your privacy and will only use information ethically and lawfully in accordance with the relevant legislation.
7. Changes to your privacy notice
We will update this privacy notice from time to time to reflect any changes to our ways of working.
Please visit the Privacy Pages on our website: General BCP Privacy Notice and Children’s Services Privacy Notice: Children's Services privacy notice (bcpcouncil.gov.uk) or contact our Data Protection Officer if you would like more information.