Introduction
This privacy notice informs you about how the Family Hub Service in Kingston and Richmond process your personal information.
Achieving for Children is registered as a controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (registration number ZA045069).
The Family Hub Servicein Kingston and Richmond provides a whole family approach to supporting children and young people aged 0 to 18 years,or up to25 with additional needs, and their families in Kingston and Richmond. The service is made up of family hub networks that include children’s centres and youth services working across the borough. Within the Family Hub Service are family hub workers and parenting workers who work with children and families within group settings. There is also a family support offer for brief intervention on a one-to-one basis. The Family Hub Service works with a range of partners to deliver a variety of services and sessions for children and families. More information about the family hub offer is published on theAfCinfo website.
Personal and special category data we collect
We collect the personal information below when you are referred to the Family Hub Service and during the course of working you and your family:
- names and addresses of all family members
- phone number and email address of parents and/or carers
- date of birth
- schools or colleges attended
- housing status
- marital status
- employment status
- sex
- financial information
- gender
- ethnicity and cultural background
- religious beliefs
- information about family members' health
If you consent to work with our family support workers, we will also engage you in an assessment that can explore the following areas:
- Referral reasons and any additional information that is necessary to enable us to provide you with the correct service.
- Relationships in the home and community.
- Safeguarding, and what will keep you and your children safe.
- School attendance and engagement.
- Any practical support needs.
How we use your personal data
We use the information we collect about you to:
- Provide you and your family with early help, advice and appropriate services.
- Provide a coordinated approach to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to ensure you receive the right support at the right time.
- Carry out our statutory functions and duties including safeguarding, child protection, children and young people at risk of offending and corporate parenting.
- Inform our support and services to families, children and young people who are most in need and at risk of harm.
- Support you to access relevant support and advice, services and groups.
- Support health and safety compliance when you are accessing our sites.
- Monitor, evaluate and quality assure the services we provide, and improve our policies on family support and early help.
- Audit and improve our services to ensure they meet you and your child’s needs.
- Help us teach, train and monitor our staff to develop good practice in the services received.
- Assess performance and set targets for service improvement.
- Account for our decisions and investigate complaints.
Legal basis for processing your personal data
The legal basis we rely on for processing you and your child’s personal data is a public task or to comply with a legal obligation. If we need to collect special category data, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk, and equality of opportunity or treatment), for the provision of social care, or the management of social care systems or services, for social security or social protection law, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims whenever courts are acting in their judicial capacity.
These legal basis are underpinned by acts of legislation that dictate what actions can and should be taken by local authorities, including:
- Children’s Act 1989
- Children’s Act 2004
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Equalities Act 2010
- Statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023
How long your personal data will be kept
Records will be retained until the child’s 25th birthday (unless looked after, adopted, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), under child protection).
Keeping your information secure
We record your information on the Liquidlogic Group Work Module within our social care and early help case management system.
We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
Achieving for Children’s email service has been configured to the Government Digital Service, and we encrypt and authenticate email in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). We will ensure that when we send emails containing your personal information, they are sent using appropriate security measures to encrypt the data in transit. This may involve the use of a third party encryption tool where appropriate.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
Who we share your personal information with
We will only share information with these organisations where it is appropriate and legal to do so. Where this is necessary, we are required to comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act 2018.
- Health services
- Education and schools
- Children’s social care services
- Metropolitan police
- Probation services
- Housing services
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
- Youth justice services
- Voluntary organisations
- Department for Education
- Ofsted
We may at times share information with our commissioners (Kingston council and Richmond council).
Your rights and access to information
Under data protection legislation, you have the right to request access to the information that we hold about you. To request a copy of your data, please read the Individual Rights Requests page on this website and then submit your request using your preferred method of contact.
You also have the right to:
- Object to the processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
- Have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed
- Prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
- Object to decisions being taken by automated means
- In certain circumstances,have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
- A right to seek redress, either through the ICO, or through the courts
If you have any questions or concerns about the way we process personal data, or would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact our Data Protection Officer: [emailprotected].
If you want to make a complaint about how we handle your personal data, we ask that you give our Data Protection Officer the opportunity to respond in the first instance but you are not obliged to do this. You can make a complaint directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.