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Privacy Notice - Family Information Service

 

The Local Authority (LA): Ealing Council

The Council’s Data Protection Officer information can be found here.

Ealing Council uses information about children and families, for whom it provides services, to enable it to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible.
For the Family Information Service, the legal bases in which we operate includes:

Consent:
For all universal enquiries, we will ask for your consent to retain your personal details and contact information. If you do not provide consent for us to do so, we will not retain this information.

Legal Obligation:
To deliver the services for two-year-old funding enquiries and Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHAP), we collect and process your personal information under the Childcare Act 2006, Section 12 The Duty to Provide Information Advice and Assistance; as well as the SEND Framework and Early Education and Childcare Statutory Guidance to enable us to confirm the eligibility of your child to receive free childcare.

Our requirement  is to ensure that information, advice and assistance is available to all children, young people and their families to access appropriate services and support available within the borough, including free childcare for two, three and four-year olds.  We also use your information to assess the quality of our service; and evaluate and improve the way in which we provide this to our users.

 

What kind of information does Ealing Council have about me?

 

Family Information Service (FIS) – universal enquiries
When you contact the FIS, we will ask you to provide information about yourself to help us respond to your enquiry in the most appropriate way. This includes personal details such as your name, address, contact details and the type of information you require. We may also need to obtain further information about you and your family to ensure you receive the most relevant information and advice; or if appropriate, so that we can signpost you for additional support from other services.

Two-year-old funding
When  we check your child’s eligibility to receive free two-year-old childcare funding, we will need information about you and your child including your name, date of birth, National Insurance Number (or National Asylum Support Service – NASS Number) and your contact details; as well as your child’s name and date of birth.

EHAP
When you request additional support through an Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHAP) we store   information about you on our central register; and use this for data analysis which includes your name, address, first language, whether you have parental responsibility, how your consent was obtained, any Team Around the Family meetings that have taken place; and details of the service(s) working with you with on the EHAP.
Additionally, we store  information regarding your child(ren); and use this for data analysis, including their name, date of birth, gender, reason for EHAP, name of school / childcare setting, first language, ethnicity, religion; and their siblings names and dates of births. We may also use some of the information mentioned above if we make a referral to another service to provide additional support on your behalf. For all universal, two-year-old funding and EHAP enquiries, your personal information is collected, for the purpose of delivering a service to you, from the following:

• Application form
• Additional information you provide
• Correspondence you, or another service sends us (with your consent)
• Information collected by our FIS Officers via telephone, email and face to face contact
• Internal and external referrals to the Council
• Third party agencies, e.g. Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

We may contact you to carry out a survey or raise awareness of a service or a public health campaign. If we do this, we will ask for your consent to be involved.

 

What do you do with information about me?

 

Family Information Service (FIS) – universal enquiries
The information we obtain about you is stored securely within our central database.

Two-year-old funding
When we check your child’s eligibility to receive free two-year-old childcare funding, we will use this information you provide to confirm your annual household income. We do this by submitting your name, date of birth and National Insurance Number (or National Asylum Support Service – NASS Number) to the Department for Education’s (DfE) Eligibility Checking System to confirm which benefits you are in receipt of. HMRC may also have access to this information. If you are in receipt of a benefit that is not verified via this system, such as Working Tax Credit; we may need to see proof of your documents to confirm eligibility.

EHAP
The information you provide within the EHAP is stored securely. This information will be accessible to the professionals and services you have agreed to share the information with.
If, during the EHAP process, a concern about you or family’s safety or wellbeing is identified; we may also need to share this information with Ealing Integrated Children’s Response Service (ECIRS). We will always endeavour to inform you of this, prior to contacting ECIRS.

 

How do I know the information about me is kept safely?

 

All the information we collect is stored securely on our IT systems and manual filing systems. We have strict procedures for the way this is done. Any and all information about you is treated as confidential and with respect. There are also clear rules and guidance about storing, recording and sharing information which staff receive training on.
We take information sharing very seriously. Appropriate council and health staff are DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checked. Any member of staff who is found to be breaking the rules will be dealt with through appropriate disciplinary procedures.

 

For how long are records held?

 

Records are kept only for as long as necessary, this is either by law or good practices.

Family Information Service (FIS) – universal enquiries
For universal enquiries, we will retain your information for seven years If you wish for us to remove the information we hold for you at a later date, you can request this by contacting us on 020 8825 5588 or email children@ealing.gov.uk

Two-year-old funding
All successful and unsuccessful applications will be held within our system for seven years. These will must be kept for auditing purposes.

EHAP
Information you provide within an EHAP will be kept on our system for ten years

 

Don't you need my permission to keep and share information about me?

 

For universal enquiries, we need your consent for collecting and processing your personal information. When we need to share information, we will ask for this from you directly or on behalf of a child for whom you have responsibility.

Although your information is confidential, we may have to share information about you/your family without your permission. Where this is necessary we are required to comply with all aspects of the data protection legislation. 

We may need to share your information in the following circumstances:

• To protect you from harm, neglect, abuse or significant threat
• When you may need urgent medical treatment
• To prevent or detect a crime
• To comply with a legal obligation

We will always do our best to tell you if we have to share information about you/your family under these circumstances, unless doing so puts you/your family in danger.

 

Are there any laws applicable in the processing and protection of my information?

 

There are a number of laws which allow for the protection, collection and processing of your personal information for this purpose, such as:

• The General Data Protection Regulations and The Data Protection Act 2018
• Children’s Act 2004
• Childcare Act 2006 as amended Section 9 of the Apprenticeships, Sills, Children and Learning Act 2009;
• Childcare Act 2006 Section 12 The Duty to Provide Information Advice and Assistance, as well as the SEND Framework and Early Education and Childcare Statutory Guidance
• The Common-Law Duty of Confidence
• The Human Rights Act 1998
• Framework for the inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers.
• NHS Guidelines - Caldicott Principles, which govern the sharing of patient identifiable information

 

Can I see the information you have collected about me/my family?

 

Yes, you can request a copy of the information held. This is called a subject access request under the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations which contain certain rights of individuals and their personal data.

For more information regarding your rights, please see the Council’s Privacy Notice at Ealing Council Website

 

Who should I contact if I want to complain about the use of my personal information?

 

Please see the LA’s website for more information on how we use your information.
The Council’s Data Protection Officer is Mrs L. Cox, whom you can contact on: dataprotection@ealing.gov.uk or telephone 0208 825 5124 during office hour

 

 

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