Your Information, Your Rights

Why we record your information

We record information about the needs of children and young people and the care they have received to help plan their care in the future.  It helps them and us to have information about the contact we have with them, and it helps build up a picture of what services are needed by the people of Staffordshire.  We also have to give the Government information about how we provide services.

All information we record and hold is handled securely, and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Who we share data with

From April 2009, the Government is asking us to send the Department for Children, Schools and Families (the DCSF) some of this information on children and young people who have received services from us.  The information will include some personal details, and the details of the services provided.  For example, if a child has a Unique Pupil Number (UPN), that will be collected, to allow the DCSF to analyse the data we supply together with the data provided by schools.  However we will not be supplying names, and the DCSF will not contact you about the information we send them.  They will use the information to help improve, monitor progress and develop good practice in the services you receive from the Local Authority.  Information may be shared with other agencies for research or statistical purposes, but in all these cases, identities would be kept secret.  Information may be shared with other agencies as required by law.

If you want to see the kind of information that we send to the DCSF, go to www.dcsf.gov.uk/datastats1/guidelines/children/returns.shtml, or you can write to:

The Data Development Unit, Data Services Group, Department for Children, Schools & Families, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT.

We may also share information about you with our partner agencies when necessary to provide you with better services.  These agencies include:

• Other Local Authorities
• Health organisations
• Education services
• Police and Youth Offending services
• Connexions

Whenever possible, we will get your permission before we share your information with others.

How long do we keep information?

The length of time we keep information varies.  This may be because of government regulations.  For example, we may keep information about a person who has been looked after by the local authority during their childhood, until their 75th birthday.  If there are no specific regulations, we may keep information for shorter periods.  For example, we destroy applications for the the "Blue Badge scheme" for car drivers who are disabled the year after the badge runs out, if it is not renewed.

We may keep files for longer periods in our Records Centre Secure Archive Service.  At the end of a specific period, we will shred files.

Full information on how long we keep records is detailed in our Children's Retention Schedule which you will find on our Retention Schedule pages

You have legal rights

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you rights about how organisations handle information about you.

In most circumstances you have the right to:

1. Know if we are holding information about you;
2. Know what information we process about you, what we are using it for and who we may share it with;
3. prevent us from doing anything with your information which would cause you substantial damage or distress;
4. claim compensation if we break the law;
5. ask us to correct or remove your information if it's not accurate or is unnecessary, and to tell other people who we share the information with what we have done; and
6. have a copy of the information held about you.  While you have a right to apply formally for a copy of the information, our policy is to be open with people and to share the information with them as part of the service we provide.

 

Last Modified: 21/07/2009 15:02:44
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