Privacy policy

This privacy policy explains when and why we collect personal information; how we use it, keep it secure and when in what circumstances we may share it with other organisations.

Who are Devon Carers?

Devon Carers provide information, assessment and support for carers who:

  • care for someone living in the Devon County Council area, or
  • live in the Devon County Council area.

We are commissioned and funded by Devon County Council and the NHS Devon who retain overall legal responsibility for the provision of the carers service.

Why we collect information about you?

Under the provisions of the Care Act 2014, Devon County Council has opted to delegate its obligations to provide support to carers and has contracted Devon Carers to do this work. 

When you contact us for information, advice or support relating to your caring role,  Devon Carers will collect and hold personal information, and processing will be undertaken as a result of this legal obligation.

We also hold personal information that is needed for us to provide you with advice  and support to you in your caring role and this is known as a legitimate interest.

Failure to provide us with the necessary personal information may result in us being unable to provide you with the service or result a delay in the provision.

When do we collect information about you?

We collect information about you when you register with us, request a Carers Assessment (whether direct or via a 3rd party) or engage with carers support services including any on-line resources available from our website.

The level of personal and sensitive information collected will vary dependant on the carers services requested.

Who do we share information with?

Your information will be shared with other organisations involved with your support as a Carer in order to supply you with the service you have requested. In line with best practice we will look to look to involve you in this decision whenever possible.

As part of our service we provide anonymised reports to our commissioners, but this does not include any personal information that can be associated to an individual.

Any Carers Assessment (Carers Initial Conversation or Health & Wellbeing Check) completed with you will be undertaken on behalf of Devon County Council and all information relating to this assessment will be securely stored directly on their systems. You will be notified of this separately prior to any work being undertaken.

Details of how they protect your information is available from their website https://www.devon.gov.uk/keepingdevonsdata/

If you request that we refer you to a 3rd party organisation we will only undertake this with your permission.

When might we share information without your agreement?

Safeguarding – All children and adults, regardless of age, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity, have the right to equal protection from all types of harm or abuse (see the following sites for more information Adults and Childrens) and the right to be treated with respect and dignity.

Devon Carers has a duty to prevent the abuse of children and adults and report any safeguarding concerns to a relevant manager within the organisation and to share concerns with Devon County Council safeguarding services if the risk of harm dictates this.

If we are concerned that you, or any other individual has suffered, or is at risk of suffering any forms of abuse, in most circumstances we will talk with you about this and seek your consent to share with other organisations who can help to keep you safe before sharing your details.

Immediate Danger – If the information you tell us makes us believe there is an immediate danger to yourself or others, we will share your information with the emergency services.

If we determine that we do need tell someone else, these are of some of the things that might happen:

  • If you tell us that you have taken an overdose, your details may be passed to people who’ll be able to get help to you, like the ambulance service
  • If you’re in immediate danger of being hurt by someone else, we may ask the police to come and check, or do something to make sure that you’re safe
  • If you’ve told us that a child is in danger, we may need to get them help. Sometimes the only way of doing that will be to contact you and ask you for more details. It may be the police that help us with this

Other occasions – There may be occasions where we have a duty to share information or concerns without consent. Examples of this would be the following:

  • it is assessed that you lack the mental capacity to make that decision
  • other people are, or may be, at risk, including children
  • sharing the information could prevent a crime
  • the alleged abuser has care and support needs and may also be at risk 
  • a serious crime has been committed
  • staff or other professionals are implicated
  • the person has the mental capacity to make that decision, but they may be under duress or being coerced
  • the risk is unreasonably high and meets the criteria for a multi-agency risk assessment conference referral
  • a court order or other legal authority has requested the information.

We will make all efforts to discuss our concerns with you and advise you when are sharing your information and with whom.

What information do we collect about you?

The personal information we collect will include your name, address, contact details, IP address, and details of your caring role. We will also record information regarding what pages are accessed on the website and when.

We will also ask you for sensitive personal information such as your religious beliefs, ethnic background, sexual orientation and health, but this information will only be held with your explicit agreement. Whilst this will help with identification of additional support that might be available and will help us and our commissioners to ensure equity availability of the service. It will not restrict your access to the overall carers service if you choose not to provide this detail.

What information do we collect about others?

If you provide information about a 3rd party (typically either the person you care for or an emergency contact) you will be asked for their contact details. This is so that we can send them a letter to confirm what personal information we hold and their rights under data protection legislation and identify you as the source of this information.

How will we use the information about you?

We collect information about you and your caring role, in order to:

  • provide you with information and support in relation to your caring role;
  • seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
  • notify you of changes to our services;
  • send you communications which you have requested;
  • provide anonymised information to the service commissioner to demonstrate the take up and effectiveness of the service; with specific reporting by characteristics such as area, age, caring responsibility or background;

and, if you have agreed, send you details of upcoming activities or carer focussed news and information.

How long we hold your information

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you are registered for our services. This will extend past the point when you tell us that you are no longer a carer or no longer require our services, for up to 8 years in order for us to meet the commissioner’s requirements as legislated by the Care Act 2014 and case law.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis in line with legislation and best practice.

Who has access to your information?

Access to your information will be provided to partner organisations for the specific purpose of providing you with the information or support requested.

Marketing

Devon Carers does not undertake unsolicited marketing and will not sell, rent or otherwise share your information to 3rd  parties for marketing purposes.

With your consent we send out information about our services and other carers related news, initiatives and activities.

Should you no longer wish to receive this information simply let us know, by email to Info@devoncarers.org.uk or call our helpline on 03456 434 435.

Your rights under Data Protection

From the 25th May 2018, your rights under Data Protection legislation are as follows:

  • The right of access to your own data and confirmation of how it is processed.
  • The right to rectification of any of your personal data if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • The right to erase. You can withdraw consent for us to hold your sensitive data at any time, but most personal data is held under a legal obligation and will be retained for the period as defined by the regulation. However each case will be considered on its own merits and where information cannot be erased this will be explained to the data subject. Once information has been deleted it cannot be recovered.
  • The right to restrict processing. When you request that processing is restricted it will be excluded until such time it has been confirmed that the data has been corrected or that it is being processed in the way that complies with the legal purpose.
  • The right to data portability. You have the right to your personal data in a format that is machine readable.
  • The right to object. You have the right to object to how we process your information.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. Devon Carers does not use profiling or automated decision making.

If you believe that any of your personal details need to be corrected, updated or you no longer wish to access the services provided by Devon Carers then please call our helpline on 03456 434 435and we can immediately update our systems.

If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information or to exercise one of the other rights, please email or write to us at the address in the ‘How to contact us’ section below, letting us know what specific information you would like. Please note that in order to establish your identity we will need to undertake security checks and will use the details already recorded on our system to contact you.   

Profiling and automatic decision making

Devon Carers does not analyse your personal information for profiling purposes

During the carers assessment process, Devon Carers will adopt Devon County Council best practice for citizen partnership and will ensure that carers are fully informed and involved in the decision-making processes. Please refer to the Devon County Council privacy notice for more information https://www.devon.gov.uk/privacy/privacy-notices/

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity.

For further information visit https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/ You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However in a few cases some of our website features may not function as expected

Other websites

Our website may contain links to enable you to easily visit third party websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over third party websites. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any data which you provide whilst visiting third party websites, and such websites are not governed by this privacy policy. You should exercise caution, and we advise you to review the privacy policy applicable to the website in question

Under 16

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged under 16. If you are aged 15 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Transferring your information outside of Europe

As part of the services offered to you, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to servers within the European Union (“EU”) or countries and companies designated as adequate under the General Data Protection Regulation and provide similar protection to those located in the UK.

If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may not be governed by legislation to the same standard and we are not able to guarantee the security of your information.

Changes to our privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on our website. This privacy policy was last updated October 2023.

Complaints

Whilst we hope that you do not feel the need to complain about how we protect your information we would invite you to contact us in the first instance using the address details below.

However if you are unhappy with our response or you would like to report your concerns to the Information Commission Office direct then a link is available on their website https://ico.org.uk/ or call 0303 123 1113.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you:

  • by email info@devoncarers.org.uk
  • by post to Freepost RRYT-SASA_HZXZ, Devon Carers, Westbank HLC, Farm House Rise, Exminster, Exeter, EX6 8AT.