Coventry City Council complies with the Data Protection Act and the GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

This Privacy Notice explains how personal information is going to be used, what for, who it will be shared with and why.

Why we collect and use personal information about you

We use your personal information so that we can provide advice and guidance, assessments, services, support and safeguarding for children and their families to better meet the needs of the children and families and to provide the help that they require as early as possible.

We collect personal information about you so that we can provide:

  • Services to, and monitoring of, vulnerable children and young people, including services to children in need, safeguarding, looked after children, children leaving care, children with disabilities, fostering and adoption services.
  • Enhanced and preventative services, that is, early intervention services like the Early Help Partnership Service to understand what support you or your family need to identify the right service at the right time to support you and provide help to you and your family.
  • Specialist services for children and families who may be vulnerable or have higher levels of need such as special education needs or who are at risk of youth offending.
  • The Troubled Families Programme - the Government's national initiative to turn around the lives of families with multiple needs.
  • Help us to develop and improve our services.
  • Complete statistical returns to Government departments.

We process personal data because it is necessary to comply with our legal obligations and perform our public duty.

What Personal Data do we collect about you and/or your child(ren)?

  • Name and contact details
  • Date of birth
  • Family details
  • Contact details of school(s) attended
  • Occupation
  • Lifestyle and social circumstance
  • Case File Information
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity (see special categories below)
  • NHS number and other identifiers
  • Health information including disability (see special categories below)
  • Personal history including any criminal convictions (see below) and educational and employment history
  • Family history and social relationships generally
  • Dealings with the Coventry City Council including being a child in need, a looked after child – including fostering and residential care, adopted and leaving care
  • Financial details if necessary

We have legal grounds to process this information because it is necessary comply with a legal duty or fulfil a public task. This includes the:

  • Children Act 1989
  • Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
  • Adoption & Children Act 2002 and associated regulations
  • Children Act 2004
  • Childcare Act 2006
  • Children and Families Act 2014, and
  • Children and Social Work Act 2017

Who we share your personal information with

We may share data with, who we share with will depend on what service we are providing:

  • Other children’s services teams within Coventry City Council
  • Adult services within Coventry City Council
  • Education providers
  • Ofsted
  • Other public bodies
  • NHS and other health agencies
  • District councils
  • Voluntary and charitable agencies providing services
  • Police
  • Courts and other judicial agencies
  • Probation
  • Youth Offending Team
  • Housing department and housing providers
  • Other central government agencies including government bodies responsible for providing funding for eligible services e.g. the Troubled Families Programme (payment by results)
  • Other public authorities
  • Department for Education (DfE) in respect of children in need and looked after children to help the DfE develop national policies; manage local authority performance; administer and allocate funding and identify and encourage good practice. For more information about the data collection requirements placed on us by the DfE go to looked after children or children in need on GOV.uk.
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

We can share this information without your specific consent when it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is otherwise in the substantial public interest to do so.

We may also receive personal information about you from others:

This is who may give us your personal data, depending on the service we need to provide to you:

  • Health agencies (including Health visitors)
  • Schools
  • Mental Health services
  • Probation
  • Police
  • Other Local Authorities
  • Family Members
  • Friends
  • Your employer
  • Housing department and housing providers

How long will we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as we need to, so we can give you the service you need, unless we must keep it for legal reasons. The time can be different depending on the service you have asked for/are provided with.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  1. Ask to see the personal information we hold about you (also known as a Subject Access Request)
  2. Ask us to change information we hold about you if it is wrong
  3. Ask us to delete the information we hold about you
  4. Ask us to limit the way we use your personal Information
  5. Data portability (have your data transferred to another Authority)
  6. Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

To exercise any of these rights please contact the Data Protection Team.

We do not make automated decisions about you and your children.

Complaints

You have the right to submit a complaint if you are unhappy with the way your request is handled or disagree with a decision made by the council regarding your data. In these circumstances you can contact the Data Protection Team (DPO) and request a review of the decision. DPOTeam@coventry.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with any outcome from the DPO you may wish to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

Date of last review: August 2018