Privacy policy

Who are Devon Carers?

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.

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.

Devon Carers consists of three local organisations working together, Westbank, Action East Devon and CoLab Exeter.

We are commissioned and funded by Devon County Council and the NHS (Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG and South Devon and Torbay CCG), 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. 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 3rdparty) 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?

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 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/data-protection-and-security/data-protection/

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

When might we share information without your agreement?

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 Children’s) 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 this 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.

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
  • the person is intending to carry out an act of terrorism
  • 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 consent. Whilst this will help with identification of additional support that might be available and will help us 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 3rdparty (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 anonomised  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 focused 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, 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 (as listed in the ‘Who are Devon Carers?’ section) 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 do 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 434 435 and 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/data-protection-and-security/data-protection/

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 www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org

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 contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to our website and services, when you link to or from other websites you should read the privacy policies on that site.

16 or Under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 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 be 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 April 2018.

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.