This privacy notice contains important information about who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal information, your rights in relation to the personal information we process and how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
Who we are
Dorset Council’s Children’s Services in partnership with other public sector agencies who work to support children, young people, and families.
Support is offered within a model of service delivery called Dorset Children Thrive.
Services we provide
Dorset Council aspires to work closely with relevant partners towards the Dorset Model, where all families thrive. (Delivered through Children, Young People and Families' Plan 2023 to 2033 - Dorset Council).
An essential element of facilitating this “gold standard” level of joint delivery is cooperation, co-production of service delivery and maximisation of available (pooled) resources across organisations and in particular the use of additional resources made available through the national Supporting Families Programme (known locally as Dorset Families Matter).
Collecting and using Information
Appropriate and effective sharing of relevant and available data, across partner organisations, to achieve this joint delivery is central to making informed decisions and ensuring we make the best use of the public money made available.
The information collected by Dorset Council is used to:
- identify families that may benefit from our support
- understand and meet the needs of families
- understand and measure the difference we are making
Families are identified through sharing personal records relating to family members and held by Dorset Council and various public bodies*. Only relevant personal data is shared, and access to personal data is restricted to essential personnel who are subject to a professional duty of confidentiality
Personal information we need from you
The personal information we may need from you consists of:
- name
- date of birth
- address
- email address
- telephone number(s)
- unique identification number(s) for each data set
- Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) data
- Domestic Abuse (DA) data
- youth offending data
- education data
- elective home education status
- 16-19 education or employment status data
- DWP benefit status and type (for family addresses triggering 1 or more qualifying criteria for whole family working)
- addiction services status and type of addiction
- mental health services open/closed status (for families already involved with social care, early help or supporting families provision)
Special category (sensitive) data we might need
In order that we may deliver services appropriate to your needs we may also ask for the following ‘special category’ (sensitive) information about you, which may include:
- race
- ethnic origin
- politics
- religion
- health
- sex life or
- sexual orientation
Personal information about you from others
To help us provide services appropriate to your needs we may receive personal information about you from others such as:
- family members
- friends
- NHS agencies such as GPs, hospitals, ambulance, community health organisations
- other providers of services such as housing advice and duty
- charities
- police
- other local authorities
Families are identified through sharing personal records that relate to you that we hold and matching this with information held by several different public bodies. Only relevant information will be shared and access is restricted to essential personnel who are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
What will your information be used for and what is the lawful basis for requesting and using it?
We are asked to provide the following information to the Department for Levelling Up Housing & Communities for the purposes of evaluating the impact of the Supporting Families Programme on families assisted through Early Help and social care:
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a small amount of personal information for everyone identified for the purposes of this programme
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progress information for every individual within a family who is being actively supported via Early Help and social care under the programme. The information we share can only be used for carrying out research, it will not be used to make any decisions about what benefits you get, or services you use, now, or in the future. It is impossible for any person or family to be identified from any published reports.
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Data shared with DLUCH and DfE may be shared with other Government departments such as Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Work and Pensions in a pseudo-anonymised form, to protect the privacy of data subjects.
All information is transferred, handled and stored in accordance with GDPR; appropriate measures are in place to prevent unauthorised use of the information.
The lawful basis for us to use your information
Generally, processing of personal data by this service meets the lawfulness condition under Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR (processing in the public interest or necessary to perform our legal functions). Where we process special category data, we must meet an additional condition under Article 9. The relevant condition that this service meets when processing special category data is set out in Article 9(2)(h) – processing necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health and social care systems and services.
To process data relating to criminal offences, we must meet one of the conditions set out in Article 10 of the UK GDPR. When we process criminal offence data, our processing will meet the condition set out in Article 10(1) - processing of criminal offence data which is authorised by UK law. In accordance with s10(5) of the Data Protection Act 2018, our processing of criminal offence data is authorised by UK law because it meets the condition set out in paragraph 1, schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 - processing necessary for social care purposes. Some examples of this are:
- protecting children
- preventing serious harm to you or to other people
- or the detection or prevention of crime
The laws which set out the council’s legal responsibilities for providing this service are listed below:
- disclosure of information to improve public service delivery and authorised by the Provision of Digital Economy Act 2017
- the general duties of a local authority in relation to well-being of young children and authorized by the Provisions of The Childcare Act 2006
- The Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on health bodies to bring certain children to local authority’s attention, where the health body has formed the opinion that the child has (or probably has) special educational needs or a disability
- Crime and Disorder Act 1998 places a duty on key authorities to do all they can to reasonably prevent crime and disorder in their area
- Education Act 2002 - duty extends the responsibility of the governing body and maintained schools beyond that of educational achievement and highlights the role of a school in all aspects of the child’s life
- Welfare Reform Act 2012 allows for longer term data sharing powers between DWP, their service providers and local authorities
- Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Local Government Act 2000
- Localism Act 2011
- Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
- Criminal Justice Act 2003
Organisations we may share your information with
In some cases we may have to share your personal information with other agencies such as:
- NHS Dorset – community and mental health services
- NHS foundation acute hospital trusts
- Public Health Dorset
- Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council – social care
- Government agencies e.g. Department of Work and Pensions, Department of Health and Department for Education
- Direct payment providers
- Emergency Services
- NHS agencies (e.g. GP)
- External services providers as determined and contracted with Dorset Council
- Dorset schools, colleges and early years or other educational settings
- Dorset Police, the Ministry of Justice, probation services, and youth offending teams
Will some or all your information be stored in, processed or accessible from countries outside the UK, EU or EEA countries?
No your information will not be stored in, processed or accessible from countries outside the UK, EU or EEA countries.
How long your information will be kept
Dorset Council will retain your data for 15 years or the number of years specified in the retention schedule for Dorset Council Children’s Services if greater (appropriate to the category of records held) at which point it will be securely destroyed.
How to complain
We hope that our Data Protection Officer can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner.
Changes to this privacy notice
This privacy notice was originally published on 11 June 2021. This has now been updated on 09 August 2023. When further amendments are made to this page, we will update this section. We recommend that you review this section from time to time so that you are aware of the latest version of this notice.
How to contact us
Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you.