Adult Social Care Assessment and Support
In order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.
Identity and contact details of the data controller
Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ
Contact details of the data protection officer
Our Data Protection Officer is Paul Bond. You can contact him at dpo@lancashire.gov.uk or Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ
What this document is for
This privacy notice provides information on how Lancashire County Council’s Adult Social Care Services uses your personal information. By ‘use’ we mean the various ways it may be processed, including storing and sharing the information.
Purposes for processing your information
We collect your personal information for the following purposes:
- Provide you with information and advice.
- Assess your current needs, desired outcomes and how best to meet them which may include a social care assessment in line with the Care Act 2014.
- Understand your previous health care and support.
- Make sure your support is safe and effective, maximises your independence and is meeting your needs.
- Provide services which are person centred, planned and well-coordinated.
- To work with partners to ensure you get the best possible service and commission other services where appropriate. Sharing your information means you won't have to repeat questions to other health and care services.
- Support you to gain equitable access to good care and support from social care provision and mainstream NHS services.
- Calculate financial assessments for care services received
- Calculate finances and keep track of spend towards your care service
- Apply for Appointeeship or Court of Protection
- Help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your care
- Review the quality of care you are receiving and check how our services are performing overall, for example by requesting your feedback
- Research, engagement and analysis which is then used to plan new services, assess our performance and commission new services
- To safeguard vulnerable adults and ensure compliance with safeguarding adults' policies and procedures
- Completion of statutory government returns around health and social care
- To comply with regulatory/inspection regimes (e.g., Care Quality Commission (CQC)/Ofsted), including providing anonymised statistics
- To award and manage contracts with social care providers as commissioned by us to ensure the quality of care to the people who access our services
Whenever you get in touch with us either in person, by phone or online, we’ll usually need your basic contact details together with enough information about your enquiry to be able to help you quickly and effectively.
If you receive or have received social care and support from Lancashire County Council, we will hold a social care record about you. All data collected is stored on our electronic adult social care records system which can only be accessed via approved users. Approved users may include employees of Lancashire County Council, and employees of commissioned delivery partners who are delivering a service on our behalf. By enabling partners to access our adult social care records system they will have access to the information required to fulfil their contracted requirements. Restricted access permissions may apply.
Our aim is only to hold information to help us provide the right support at the right time. We may share information in order to provide a service to you or where we are required to do so by law, to safeguard public safety, and in risk of harm or emergency situations. We may also share information to safeguard public funds administered by the Authority.
The Care Act 2014 focuses on the wellbeing of the individual and explores a range of social care areas to determine eligibility and need. Following a Social Care Assessment, support may include direct help from a range of professionals such as a Social Worker, Occupational Therapist or Social Care Support Officer, or the provision of a package of care through a personal budget for support in your own home or through accommodation arranged by Lancashire County Council. Lancashire County Council will provide contracted care providers with your information to enable the delivery of social care packages to meet your assessed needs. Where appropriate we may also be provided with information about you from partner agencies.
Examples of social care services and support include:
- Occupational Therapy Service
- Social Work
- Rehab for Visual Impairment Officers (ROVI)
- Intermediate Care Services – Short-term Help and Support
- Adult Disability Services
- Enablement Service
- Employment Support Service
- Shared Lives Service
- Adult Mental Health Service
- Advocacy Service
- Homecare Services – Living Well at Home
- Technology Enabled Care Services
- Residential Care Service
- Carers Service
- Day Care Services
- Short Breaks
We work in partnership with the NHS to support the effective discharge of patients, from hospital to their home or alternative accommodation, where support from social care services is needed to ensure that health and social care needs are met. Specific data related to your care and support needs is exchanged electronically from the hospital Electronic Patient Record System (EPR), via the region's Health Information Exchange (HIE) known locally as the Lancashire Person Record Exchange Service (LPRES), and directly imported into the appropriate local authority adult social care records system. This allows Healthcare Professionals within the Health and Social Care community to appropriately access the most up-to-date and accurate information about people to deliver the best possible care. This will lead to:
- improved continuity of care
- safer services for people
- a reduction in unnecessary diagnostic tests
- less paperwork and more efficient services
- greater access to data for providers of care, people who use care and their carers
Safeguarding Enquiries are undertaken with the aim of protecting vulnerable people in Lancashire in cooperation with appropriate agencies such as the police, hospitals, nursing homes and care agencies.
Assessments under both The Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) be carried out where appropriate. Lancashire County Council has a legal duty to employ, authorise and maintain Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHP) to meet statutory obligations under the MHA (1983). Section 13 of the MHA (1983) states that if a Local Authority have reason to think that an application for admission to hospital or a Guardianship application may need to be made in respect of a person within their area, they shall make arrangements for an AMHP to consider the person's case on their behalf.
Lancashire County Council works in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1998 to provide the least restrictive care possible and to respect the privacy of people we support.
Category of personal data being processed
- Personal data (information relating to a living, identifiable individual)
- Special category personal data (racial, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation)
How the law protects you and the legal basis for processing your information
The legal basis for processing your personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR Article 6 (1) is:
(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for us to process your personal data for a specific purpose.
(c) Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law. We will cite the applicable legislation if we need to rely on this basis for processing.
(e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for us to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. We will cite the applicable task/function and its' basis in law if we wish to rely on this basis for processing.
The legal basis for processing your special categories of personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR Article 9 (2) is:
- The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of this personal data.
(g) Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
(h) Processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.
We may also need to use special category data:
- where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Article 9 (2) (c) of the UK GDPR)
- where it is necessary for legal cases (Article 9 (2) (f) of the UK GDPR)
- where it is necessary for employment purposes (Article 9 (2) (b) of the UK GDPR)
- where it is necessary for archiving, research or statistical purposes (Article 9 (2) (j) of the UK GDPR)
Supporting Legislation (not exhaustive list):
- The Care Act 2014, Part 1
- Section 1 - Promoting Individual Wellbeing.
- Section 9 - Assessing needs. Assessment of an adult's needs for care and supportstates that if it appears that an adult may have needs for care and support so the authority must assess.
- Section 10 - Assessing needs. Assessment of a carer’s needs for support states a carer may have needs for support and the authority must access this.
- Section 45 - Safeguarding Adults Board Supply of Information.
- Local Government Act 2000- Section 2 - gives the local authority the power to do anything they consider likely to achieve the promotion or improvement of the social wellbeing of their area.
- Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended 2007)
- Section 13 - places an obligation on the local social services authority to arrange for an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) to consider the case of a person in their area where there is reason to think an application for admission to hospital or Guardianship may need to be made.
- Section 26 - places an obligation on Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHP) to identify a Nearest Relative (as defined by the Act), and to consult the Nearest Relative before taking certain actions under Section 13 of the Act including before making an application for admission to hospital under Section 3 of the Act or making an application for Guardianship. There are specific circumstances where an AMHP may not be required to consult a Nearest Relative before making an application under Section 3 including where it is not reasonably practicable to consult or where the disclosure of this information would have a negative effect on the patient. Section 26 places a duty on Approved Mental Health Professionals to inform the Nearest Relative if an admission of their relative has, or is going to be, made to hospital under Section 2 of the Act. The Act sets out the information which the Nearest Relative is entitled to receive unless the patient requests otherwise.
- Section 117 – After-care
- Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Part 1, Section 4 - Best interests
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, any related codes of practice, and, when implemented, the new Liberty Protection Safeguards under the Mental Capacity (Amended) Act 2019
- Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019
- Community Care Act 1990
- Adult Social Care Reform White Paper - People at the Heart of Care (2021)
- Health and Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015 – Chapter 28 - 251B Duty to share information –
- This section applies in relation to information about an individual that is held by a relevant health or adult social care commissioner or provider (“the relevant person”).
- The relevant person must ensure that the information is disclosed to:
- Persons working for the relevant person, and
- Any other relevant health or adult social care commissioner or provider with whom the relevant person communicates about the individual.
- The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014
- Care Standards Act 2000
- The National Minimum Standards for Domiciliary Care
- The Domiciliary Care Agencies Regulations 2002
- Care and Support (Discharge of Hospital Patients) Regulations 2014
- Local Government Act 2000
- Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996
- Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002
- Criminal Justice Act 2003
- Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1, Part 2
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Equality Act 2010
- Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015
- Autism Act 2009
- Health and Care Act (2022) Section 91 Discharge of hospital patients with care and support needs
- The Communications Act 2003
- The Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
- The Safety and Quality Act 2015
- Personalised Health and Care 2020: Using Data and Technology to Transform Outcomes for Patients and Citizens
- Digital Health and Care Guidance 2021
- Assistive technology: definition and safe use 2021
- Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data 2022
Who we share your information with
Where you are the person receiving support and provide consent, information may be shared with your family members. We may also share, where it is appropriate to do so in relation to your care needs or safety, information about you with the following types of organisations:
- Teams within Lancashire County Council so we can provide our services to you
- Health Services (E.g., GPs, health professionals, NHS Trusts [Foundation/Hospital/Ambulance], private health care providers, Integrated Care Boards)
- Hospital Managers of any hospital in England or Wales registered to accept patients under the Mental Health Act (1983) in pursuance of admission to hospital under the Act or discharge from hospital under a provision of the Act.
- Care providers commissioned to provide care
- Some voluntary sector organisations where they are commissioned to provide direct health and care services
- Other Local Authorities
- Government Departments (E.g. DWP, Home Office, HMRC, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Office of the Public Guardian and Court of Protection, Ombudsman, UK Parliament MPs and Lords)
- HM Prison and Probation Service
- Regulatory inspection regimes - Care Quality Commission, Ofsted
- Third parties who help us with research and analysis of local care services. Although this shared information is about the care received by our service users, it does not identify anyone directly by name or address. Instead, we use a numerical identifier so that the information we share does not contain anything that could directly identify you.
- Emergency services/law enforcement agencies
- Adult Safeguarding Board and Victim Services
- Local Councillors
- Housing Associations/Agencies/Providers, utility companies
- Employment agencies
- Financial agencies
- Educational settings
- Local Employers
- Representatives who 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
- Court Appointed Deputy
- Nominated representative/nearest family member
- Other family members who have an interest in your mental/social health and care
- Best Interest Assessors & commissioned Best Interest Assessor providers
We may also share your data with Partner Organisations who are delivering a service and acting as a 'Data Processor' on our behalf, including:
- Independent Sector Care and Support Regulated Providers
- Independent Sector Care and Support Non-Regulated Providers
Regulated care includes support and care at home, residential care, and care homes with nursing. Regulated means the care providers are inspected and rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), whereas non-regulated care providers are not regulated by the CQC.
We provide some of these partners with direct access to our social care records system to enable the sharing of relevant information that may impact on care requirements and to ensure that partners are able to fully support people, imputing information onto our system where required. Professional organisations are providing us with service user information for various social care support services.
The work done by the above partner organisations will be in line with meeting a social care need, as identified through an assessment, where they are the most appropriate organisation to offer that support. The data shared to enable that support will be proportionate to the support required.
They will use this information to support you with any service or contact that you may have, which is known as ‘direct care’. It helps them provide the most appropriate care for you as an individual and they may share information with others including health professionals to ensure that they can make informed decisions. Where this information is shared, your confidentiality and privacy will be protected. To make sure this takes place, there are clear rules in our own procedures as well as national legislation.
In most situations, other people/organisations must have your permission before we can give them information about you.
Information we share, appropriate to the need or situation
Information about the people we support:
- Basic details about you such as name, address, telephone number, email address and date of birth.
- Details surrounding your family
- Personal Reference Numbers – e.g., Adult social care records system (LAS) identification number / National Insurance Number / NHS Number
- Housing circumstances and needs
- Lifestyle and social circumstances
- Financial details – for funding assessment purposes
- Employment and education details
- Business information and activities
- Immigration status
- Other relevant health professional/agency involvement
- Health and safety information, risk assessments and accident/incident forms
- Personal/sensitive information gathered during the assessment process
- Safeguarding referrals, associated information, and reports
- Informal carer support details
- Information gathered during formal visits and meetings, including relevant support plans, daily records, e-mails, documents and minutes both created by Adult Social Care and/or submitted by an external partner
- Opinions and decisions
- Records of complaints
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 needs including medications
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or other beliefs
- Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
- Sexual orientation
Information of next of kin/relevant family members:
- Basic details such as name, address, telephone number, email address, date of birth
Additional information relevant to Shared Lives Service Carers:
- Medical Reference
- Employer Reference
- Personal Reference
- Medical History Work
- Qualifications, training and awards
- Emergency contact details
- Appropriate checks
- DBS information
Your NHS Number
Local health and social care services are working together to improve how your information is shared to support the decisions they make about your care. We ask for your NHS Number as it helps to uniquely identify you when sharing information between health and social care.
Any transfers to another country
Yes – This applies to some services specific to the MHA (1983) and the MCA (2005). Statutory MHA forms are completed and held within the s12 Solutions App used by AMHPs and s12 Doctors. Personal data relating to app users is being transferred to an Amazon Web Services cloud in Dublin by s12 Solutions, which is replicated to a Frankfurt datacentre as part of the Disaster Recovery Plan. This personal data is limited to the s12 doctor and the AMHP. No personal data relating to service users will be transferred to Dublin as part of this process.
Retention periods
Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period, they will follow established best practice.
| File type | Description | Security | Retention period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Database of Service users and Carers (Liquid Logic for Adults – LAS) | Case Records Demographic details Social Care Assessments and Reviews Carer Assessments and Reviews Risk Assessments Safeguarding Information Occupational Therapy Assessments Support Plans and current/historical support services Informal Support Details Support from other relevant partners/organisations Reablement Plans External Information held within Documentum, such as letters, reports, e-mails, word documents Referral forms to other external partners Financial Information |
Held on a secure server | Active case file until no further services are required. Retention and disposal periods for all records held within the county council's social care case records system are determined by client category. Records for clients with a category of elderly, physically disabled, or those with a learning disability are retained for 3 years after death or after the case has been closed. Records for clients with a category of mental health are retained for periods of between 5 years from the date the services cease, to 20 years after no further treatment is considered necessary in line with the Mental Health Act and NHS Code of Good Practice. |
| Learning Disability and Autism Service - Delegation Portal account | Registration details – name, address, job role, email | 2 factor login – password and unique code sent by email | Deactivation after 2 years of inactivity, with deletion after an additional year if account if not recovered. |
| Emails held in Outlook that haven't been exported or moved elsewhere. | Encryption used when emailing personal data to partners. | Retained in accordance with appropriate internal retention guidelines | |
| Shared Lives Carer Records |
|
Stored on secure servers | Review 10 years from closure at termination of service |
| Pre-approval Prospective Shared Lives Carer Information |
|
Stored on secure servers |
|
| Employment Support Service Records |
|
Stored on secure servers |
|
Your rights
You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are the right:
- to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
- to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data, then you can remove this at any point.
- of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this, we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
- of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
- to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
- to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
- to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
- to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing, or research purposes.
- in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.
If you want to exercise any of these rights, then you can do so by contacting:
Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ
Email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk
To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.
Further information
If you would like more information about this Adult Social Care Assessment and Support then please email: commissioningagewell@lancashire.gov.uk
For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.
Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).