Adult mental health services

Last updated: 28 February 2020

The following privacy notice applies to adult mental health services provided by Warwickshire County Council. It should be read in addition to the council’s overall Customer Privacy Notice, the Adult Social Care and Support Privacy Notice, and the Adult Social Care Commissioned Services Privacy Notice.

The Mental Health Service processes personal information in order to provide mental health care and aftercare services to customers, their carers and/or representatives.

This includes:

Assessing the mental health care needs, including in specific circumstances the Deprivation of Liberty, of customers and/or their carers and providing the appropriate care package
Obtaining funding for mental health services, placements and packages of care for customers and/or their carers;
Providing Safe Scheme and Safe & Well checks
Investigating complaints and concerns
Supporting and managing our employees
Anonymised information based on but not including personal information is used for service planning and reporting and statistical returns to the Council and Department of Health

The Adult Mental Health Service processes personal information which is relevant to individual cases but may include some but is not limited to:

Personal details – e.g. name / Date of Birth / address / and family details. In cases where the customer lacks the mental capacity this will also include name and contact details of a relative/Appointed Representative and/or those with Lasting Power of Attorney.
Contact information – e.g. telephone numbers / email address
Personal Reference Numbers – National Insurance number, NHS number, Care System unique customer number
Employment details
Family Details – where client lacks capacity name, contact details of nearest relative/holder of Lasting Power of Attorney
Financial details/Benefits details – for financial assessment and care funding purposes
Lifestyle and social circumstances
Opinions and decisions
Records of complaints
Personal appearance and behaviour

We may also process some sensitive (special category) information, which is relevant to individual cases, for providing mental health services, which may include but is not limited to:

Physical and/or mental health details
Racial or ethnic origin
Religious or other beliefs
Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
Political affiliation / opinions
Sexual orientation

The lawful basis for processing this personal information is:

Compliance with a legal obligation
- Mental Health Act 1983/2007
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards 2009
- Care Act 2014

Occasionally, we may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you or your representative with partner organisations. These include but are not limited to:

police
health including – GPs, Hospitals, Coventry & Warwickshire (NHS) Partnership Trust, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit
care homes
statistical, anonymised data is shared with NHS Digital and Warwickshire County Council
Independent Best Interest Assessors and Mental Health Assessors
representatives who will act on your behalf should you lack the capacity to make decisions regarding your care. Including but not limited to:
- Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA);
- those with Lasting Power of Attorney
- a Court Appointed Deputy
- a nominated representative/nearest family member
- other family members who have an interest in your mental health and care
- the Court of Protection
Warwickshire Safeguarding services
appropriate adult/children’s social care team(s)
other Warwickshire County Council services as appropriate including legal services

We do have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party, for example, to prevent crime.

Information will only ever be shared when it is strictly necessary to help us provide effective services and you may have the right to refuse. We will not pass it onto any other parties unless required to do so by law or in all reasonable circumstances the disclosure is fair and warranted for the purposes of processing or subject to a legal data protection exemption.

Information related to those Sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983: 20 yrs from no further treatment required then summary information kept for 10 yrs OR 8 yrs from the person’s death if the case is already closed

Information related to those not Sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983: 10 years from when care was no longer being received or 2 years form the person’s death if the case was already closed

Please note: stated retention periods may be subject to any legal holds imposed under the Inquiries Act 2005 that may concern the information and override standard retention.

You are entitled to a copy of, or a description of, the personal data we hold that relates to you, subject to lawful restrictions. Please see www.warwickshire.gov.uk/accesstoinformation on how to request this using the online secure form.

You may be entitled to rectification and restriction (where related to rectification) of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis. Requests should be made direct to:

Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership Trust www.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/access-to-health-records

See our overall privacy notice at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/privacy for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights. See also www.warwickshire.gov.uk/dataprotection

NHS and care services

To find out more about the NHS’ wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, visit the NHS website.

If you do choose to opt out, you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes.

How do we look after personal information for users of Adult Social Care and their Carers?(PDF, 260.43 KB)