GDPR and Confidentiality

General Data Protection Regulations and Your Confidentiality

Argyll And Bute Care And Repair believes that all our clients (whether self-referred or referred to us through one of our Council, NHS or Health and Social Care partners or from a family member, friend, other 3rd party or charitable service) have a right to have their data and information that is provided to us, or collected by us, treated confidentially and held securely. Therefore, in accordance with the current General Data Protection Regulations this means that we will not:

  • pass on your details including name, address, phone number or email address to anyone without your permission

  • discuss your personal or financial situation with anyone else without your permission

  • Use your information for any other purposes other than it was collected for.

  • Retain your information for any longer than it is required as set out in our Privacy Policy or as required by law or for other legal requirements.

However, there may be some exceptions to this, for instance,

  • where we are required by law to pass on information

  • where there is a risk to your personal health or safety if we do not pass on the information.

The new General Data Protection Regulations, introduced on May 25th 2018, requires that we must ensure that your personal data is held and maintained securely, accurately and is up-to date. Additionally, we must be transparent about how we collect data, what we do with it, and how we process it. We must also be clear about how we explain this to you and we must ensure that we process your information or data lawfully.

As required we have produced a ‘Client Privacy Notice’ or ‘Fair Processing Notice’ which sets out:

  • How we receive and/or collect information from you

  • What type of information we collect

  • Why we need this information

  • What we will use this information for

  • Why and how we may share information about you

  • How this information is stored and for how long

  • Your rights regarding requests to view, amend or delete the information we hold about you

  • You can view and download our ‘Client Privacy Notice’ at the link provided below.

  • If you require additional information, our full Privacy Policy is available and can be requested by contacting enquiries@abcarerepair.co.uk or by writing to The Manager, Argyll and Bute Care and Repair, 5 Stafford Street, Oban, Argyll, PA34 5NJ.

Further Information

You can visit the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) website for further information at https://ico.org.uk.

How Do We Gather Information About You?

The majority of the information we hold about you is provided to us on referral forms (either paper or emailed) from our referral partners in Council Telecare service, NHS Occupational Therapy service, Social Work or from others within the Health and Social Care Partnership within Argyll and Bute. On occasion we may receive phone call referrals from these services providing us with client contact details and the nature of the referral. We may occasionally also receive information from family and friends, other agencies such as the Fire Service, Carer organisations and charities who may visit you or be involved with you in some way. We also collect data from our clients when they contact us directly and self-refer for one of our care and repair services. We may also have any letters you have sent to us and any ‘service quality questionnaires’ or ‘customer feedback forms’ you have completed for us.

What Information Do We Hold?

We only hold the information that we need to provide you with the required service(s). In the most part this is contact information such as your name, phone number, address, etc. However, depending on the nature of the service we may hold other details such as disability grant entitlement and amount, personal financial contributions, type of disability adaptation or details on the particular Care and Repair service provided.

We hold some of this information so we can provide you with the necessary support and manage your particular service requirements, respond to your enquiries, deal with complaints, meet our obligations to you and help you to access other agencies and services. We also use some of this data for statistical or performance reporting purposes as required by our contracts with our Council, NHS and Health And Social Care funders. All reports produced by Argyll And Bute Care And Repair are anonymised and do not (and cannot) identify any individual.

Sharing Information

Sometimes we need to share information with other organisations. We will always ask for your consent and this would primarily be to provide you with any additional help, support and assistance you may require.

Who Can See your Information?

The information we hold is only available to the Argyll and Bute ‘Care and Repair Officer’ or ‘Housing Support Officer’ dealing with your case, our Administrator and the Data Protection officer. Our staff are all trained to deal with confidential information and it is a serious disciplinary offence if this information is used inappropriately.

Your Rights

You have the right to obtain the following from us:

  1. confirmation that we are processing your personal data;

  2. a copy of your personal data; and

  3. other supplementary information

Personal data of the individual

You are only entitled to your own personal data, and not to information relating to other people If you are unhappy with the information we hold on you or about the way we are using your information, you can ask us to correct any inaccuracies in your information or make a request for us to delete your personal data or you have the right to ask us to stop using it.