Customer privacy notice - Family Adoption Links

General information

This privacy notice provides you with general information about how we collect and use your information in the delivery of Family Adoption Links services.

Our host authority is Lincolnshire County Council and as such, we adopt their Customer privacy policy as outlined below.

We provide more detail about the information we collect for individual services within service specific privacy notices.

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Who we are

Lincolnshire County Council is a public authority and is known as the “Controller” of the information that we collect about you. You can view the registration on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Lincolnshire County Council
County Offices
Newland
Lincoln
LN1 1YL

Telephone: 01522 552222
Fax: 01522 516137
Mini-com: 01522 552055

Data Protection Officer’s contact details

You can contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@lincolnshire.gov.uk

You can also write using the postal address above. Please mark the envelope FAO: Data Protection Officer.

Your information

The information we collect about you is split into two categories that are determined by the definitions set out in law.

Personal data is information that identifies and relates to you, this may include:

name, address, date of birth and other contact information
unique identification numbers
details of your social and/or economic status
location data
online identifiers (for example an IP address)

Special category data is personal data which is considered more sensitive and private in nature. This is information about your:

race or ethnic origin
political views and affiliations
religious or philosophical beliefs
trade union membership
genetics
biometrics (where used for ID purposes, for example, facial recognition)
health
sex life or sexual orientation

Why we collect information about you

Lincolnshire County Council collects and uses your information to help deliver public services. These services are split into the following categories:

Adult Care and Community Wellbeing
Children’s Services
Commercial
Corporate Services
Fire and Rescue and Community Safety
Resources
Place

We process your information for the following purposes:

for the service you requested, and to monitor and improve our performance in responding to your request
to allow us to be able to communicate and provide services and benefits appropriate to your needs
to ensure that we meet our legal obligations and to exercise our statutory powers in the public interest
to conduct public consultations and engagement
where necessary for law enforcement functions
where necessary to protect individuals from harm or injury
to allow the statistical analysis of data so we can plan the provision of services
to support effective decision making and improve efficiency of services
for the purposes of public and staff safety and crime prevention and detection

We will only collect the information that we need to deliver services to you and as far as is reasonable and practicable we will ensure that your information is accurate and kept up to date.

Lawful bases for processing information about you

We must ensure that we have a lawful basis to collect and use your information. The lawful bases the council relies on vary depending on our involvement with you. They are:

compliance with a legal obligation as required by UK or EU law to process for a specific purpose
performance of a public task in the public interest or an official function which has a clear basis in law
performance of a contract for the supply of goods or services
with your consent, where there is documented evidence of that consent
pursuit of a legitimate interest, of the council or a third party
to protect a person’s vital interests (for example, to protect someone’s life)

If the information you provide us contains special category data, this requires a further lawful basis to those listed above. In relation to the council’s processing activities these are:

for reasons of substantial public interest
to establish, exercise of defend legal claims
for preventative and occupational medicine and the assessment of the working capacity of an employee
provision of health and social care treatment or the management of health and social care systems
carrying out obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of employment and social security and social protection law
with your explicit consent
to protect an individual’s vital interests
processing personal data which are manifestly made public by you

How we may collect your information

Your information is collected in several ways:

directly from you when you contact the council or sign up to a service. This includes face to face contact, telephone calls, and emails
provided by members of the public
provided by another organisation involved in the provision of services such as healthcare, social and welfare organisations, and law enforcement agencies
provided by another organisation to allow the research and intelligence necessary to perform our statutory functions
provided by government bodies such as the Department of Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
surveillance systems such as CCTV

Who we may share your information with

he type of service you receive will inform who we share your information with. Where necessary we may share your information with the following categories of recipients:

healthcare, social and welfare organisations and professionals
providers of goods and services
financial organisations, including debt collection, tracing and credit referencing agencies
elected members
local and central government
ombudsman and regulatory authorities
professional advisors, consultants and contractors
police forces, other law enforcement and prosecuting authorities
voluntary and charitable organisations
Disclosure and Barring Service
courts and tribunals
utilities providers
Serco, our strategic partner who provide services on our behalf, for example financial assessments and the customer service center.

How long we hold your information for

We are required to retain your information for as long as is necessary, after which it will be securely destroyed.

Retention periods can differ and will depend on various criteria including the purpose of processing, regulatory and legal requirements, and internal organisational need.

We have retention schedules in place that set out in detail how long information will be held for.

At times, the council may be subject to a legal hold that will require information to be held beyond its usual retention period.

Currently the council is subject to the following legal holds:

Any information that is subject to a legal hold cannot be destroyed until that legal hold has passed.

How we protect your information

We operate an information security management system which helps to protect your information. We do this by putting in place technical and organisational security measures designed to reduce the risk to your information through loss, theft, and unauthorised access.

The information security management system is subject to constant review and independently audited.

All staff are required to undertake regular data protection training and must comply with a variety of policies designed to keep your information secure.

Where your information is held

All information in hard copy format is held within the UK.

Information in electronic format is held in the UK, and in some instances within the EEA where we use a cloud-based IT system for example.

We also use limited IT services which are based outside of the EEA. In these circumstances we ensure adequate safeguards are in place to help protect your data and your data protection rights.

Your information rights

You have several rights in relation to the information that the council holds about you:

Access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.

Object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

Automated decisions and profiling – You have the right to prevent your information being processed and decisions being made about you solely by automated means (without any human involvement)

To view more information about your rights and when these might apply visit the Information Commissioner’s website.

View our data protection information for more details about how to make a request to exercise your information rights.

Information Commissioner’s Office

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you are not satisfied with the way that the council has handled your information.

The ICO is an independent body set up to uphold information rights in the United Kingdom. They can also provide advice and guidance and can be contacted through the Information Commisioner’s website, via their helpline on 0303 123 1113 or in writing to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF