Adult social care and support

Last updated: 17 November 2023

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

The services process personal information in order to carry out basic administration and delivery of adult social care and support services in community and residential/Health care settings either directly or jointly with partners, and commissioned private and third sector providers.

This includes:

assessing the physical and mental health, learning and behavioural, financial social care needs, as appropriate, of vulnerable adults and/or their carers/designated representative/holders of Power of Attorney/Court Appointed Deputies.
Requiring social care packages
Enabling the provision of a range of personalised adult social care packages
Maintaining our own accounts and records
Supporting and managing our employees
Awarding and managing contracts with social care providers as commissioned by us and to ensuring the quality of care to our customers
Shaping the current and future social care provider market by consulting with customers and/or their carers/representatives
Providing “signposting” services for some adult social care-related advice and guidance
Providing a complaints service if things go wrong
Safeguarding vulnerable adults for the prevention of crime
Compliance with regulatory/inspection regimes (e.g. Ofsted and Care Quality Commission), including providing anonymised statistics Providing Safe Scheme and Safe & Well checks
Collecting information on people who wish to express an interest in working with Warwickshire County Council to improve Adult Social Care Services (Co-production).

The services process personal information, which is relevant to individual cases but may include some but is not limited to:

Personal details – e.g. name / age / address / and family details
Contact information – e.g. telephone numbers / email address
Personal Reference Numbers – e.g. Social Care unique customer reference number / National Insurance Number / NHS number Employment details
Financial details – for funding assessment purposes
Lifestyle and social circumstances
Opinions and decisions
Records of complaints
Safeguarding reports
Student and pupil records
Visual images, personal appearance and behaviour

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

Biometric information
Physical 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 bases for processing this personal information depend on the process and are:

Necessary for a public task
Necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
Necessary for a contract for the supply of services
Consent of the individual Legitimate interests for the purposes of managing employees.

We may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you with partner organisations where relevant to the individual and/or their care provision. These include but are not limited to:

police and probation service
Department of Health
health services – GPs, Dental Practices, Opticians, Ambulance Services, Hospitals, Coventry & Warwickshire (NHS) Partnership Trust, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit (CSU)
regulatory inspection regimes – Care Quality Commission, Ofsted
statistical, anonymised data is shared with NHS Digital and Warwickshire County Council
schools/colleges
housing agencies and providers
Warwickshire District and borough councils
Commissioned Advocacy & Appointeeship providers
Organisations that support the development of Co-production and engagement who we are working in partnership with, including Ideas Alliance.
care homes and other social care providers
utility companies
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
Office of the Public Guardian
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Home Office
HMRC
West Midlands Strategic Partnership
banks and building societies
credit reference agencies
Adult Safeguarding Board
appropriate adult/children’s social care team(s)
other Warwickshire County Council services as appropriate including Legal Services Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman

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.

The standard adult social care record retention is 6 years after a adult social care service has ended. However there are also a range of other retention periods affecting different information and service need and these range from 1 year – 11 years depending on the type of information and service.

Nb. Mental Health record retention is covered by the Mental Health Services Privacy Notice

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. Find out how to request this using the online secure form.

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis. Please in the first instance contact your Social Worker or care provider to exercise these Information Rights or call the main Warwickshire County Council contact telephone number of 01926 410410.

See our overall privacy notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.

NHS and care services

Warwickshire County Council works with other health and social care organisations to share information that will form part of your Integrated Care Record. The Integrated Care Record allows health and care professionals involved in your care to view your records to help them understand your needs and make the best decisions with you, and for you. Information we hold about you will be available, to read only, to other health and care professionals in Coventry and Warwickshire, Birmingham and Solihull, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire when they are involved in your health or social care.

For more information on how your data is used on the Integrated Care Record and how to exercise your rights please see the full Privacy Notice.

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)