At Martlets Care, we are committed to protecting your personal information and privacy. This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information. We will only ever collect the information we need for purposes of providing domiciliary care to our clients, recruiting and employing our staff and care workers, and communicating our services and community projects upon request. We may update this privacy notice from time to time so please check back periodically. We will notify you of significant changes by placing a notice on our website. Our website and all our communications materials contain a reduced version of our privacy notice in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. If you have any queries about this privacy notice, please contact us here enquiries@martletscare.co.uk or visit our website www.martletscare.co.uk or write to us at Martlets Care, Wayfield Avenue, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 7LW. We have a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of client/patient information and enabling appropriate information sharing. This person is called the Caldicott Guardian; our Caldicott Guardian is Karen Taylor.

Martlets Care is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (Registration number Z339534X).

The Martlets Group also includes: Martlets Hospice Limited : a registered Charity in England and Wales (Registration number 802145) and a company limited by guarantee (Registration number 2326410). Martlets Hospice Trading Company Limited : a company limited by guarantee (Registration number 4557282).

We collect personal information about you when you interact with us (for example, by phone or online)

• Register with us
• Enquire about activities and services
• Participate in an event or training
• Enter a competition
• Visit our premises
• Access our care services
• Be acknowledged as a friend or family member of one of our service users
• Apply to work for us
• Visit our website
• Otherwise provide us with your personal information

Employees and Care Workers

The types of information we might collect from employees and care workers include your name, postal address, email address, phone numbers, date of birth, next of kin, employment history, disabilities, proof of identification for DBS purposes, photograph for identification badges, vehicle registration, proof of qualifications, relevant to your employment or care worker role, and character or employment references.

We may collect special category data including but not limited to race, faith, gender, religion, disability and family life for statistical and reporting purposes but these will be anonymised and no individual will be identifiable.

We sometimes also use photos and video footage to promote and celebrate the work that we do for which we ask the consent of staff members and care workers and all other individuals included. This consent can be withdrawn by you at any time.

Service Users (Clients) and Family and Friends

The lawful basis for processing service users (our clients) and next of kin data is the legitimate purpose of providing a care service. Special category data held on service users is processed for the purposes of providing a care service. If you, a relative or a friend, are cared for or supported by Martlets Care, the special category data you provide to us will be used only for the purposes of offering access to and providing you with services including training our staff or for monitoring the quality and efficacy of our services. Martlets Care will not disclose your personal information to any third party without your consent, except in the following circumstances:

• To health and social care professionals and organisations involved in the provision of your care, and always within the appropriate regulations governing sharing of your health records.
• Exceptionally, to professional bodies or otherwise as required by law, regulation or codes of practice.

We will not use your information for other purposes without your permission. If you tell us about your own experience with personal care needs or the experience of someone else we will explain how we will use that information. If you don’t want us to use such information for other purposes or change your mind at any time, it will not affect any services we provide. If you receive education, training or mentoring we will use your personal details only for the purposes of offering access to and providing you with such services.

CQC accessing records and GDPR

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to access and use information where they consider this is necessary for them to carry out their functions as a regulator of care service provision. Where possible inspectors explain why they are asking to look at certain records.  They will consider any concerns and objections raised to them, and whether they can achieve the CQC’s purpose by accessing the records of someone else. However, the CQC relies on its legal powers to access information rather than consent, therefore may use its powers to access records even in cases where objections have been raised.   Martlets Care, in compliance with GDPR and data protection legislation informs people of the CQC’s powers relating to accessing of records, in order to ensure our staff, people using our services and their families are aware.  The CQC Privacy Policy regarding records and data is available to read at the CQC website.   The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) provides more information and resources on GDPR compliance and the ICO can also be contacted for advice.

Employees and care workers

The lawful basis for processing employee and care worker data is the legitimate purpose of managing the relationship between Martlets Care and the employee or care worker. We use the information collected on our employee and volunteer application forms to identify if you are suitable to work for Martlets Care as an employee or care worker. If your application is unsuccessful we dispose of your data within six months. If your application is successful we will retain a copy of your application form and your data will be stored electronically to allow us to manage the employment or worker contract relationship we have with you. If you cease to be employed or work as a care worker by Martlets Care we will retain your personal data for a period of six years.

Sharing your information

We will only share information with other organisations where we have your permission to do so in accordance with this privacy notice, where it is necessary for a legitimate reason connected with the services we offer or where it is required by law or regulation. For our service users, we will only share your information with family and friends with your consent. We use Microsoft Office 365, which is a multi-tenant cloud service, for our internal office use; this means that internal documents and information which are generated at Martlets Care are stored in cloud services which are hosted within the EEA. Exceptionally, we may use tools or services which process data outside of the immediate EEA, but only in additional countries which are considered by the EU as having adequate data protection laws. We will never sell your data to any third party. We will not share your details with any charities for marketing purposes.

We place a great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our clients, employees, care workers and users. We have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, only authorized personnel can access user information and we use secure server software (SSL) to encrypt financial and personal information you input before it is sent to us. However we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of data will not occur while it is under our control. Where you or we have provided a password enabling you to access parts of our websites or use our services, it is your responsibility to keep this password confidential. Please do not share your password with anyone. After you have received the services or information you require, we will store your information according to our retention schedule, in line with current data protection legislation. We do not communicate with people that have asked us not to. We will always dispose of information securely, using specialist companies if necessary.

You have the following rights with regard to the data we store about you within legal parameters:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to era
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact enquiries@martletscare.co.uk for more information.

You have the right to ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you or ask us to change it if you think it is wrong. Please contact us for more information. If you are unhappy with our use of your personal data, we urge you in the first instance to contact us. You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. We use these to improve the user’s experience of our website, temporarily store data and understand the parts of the website that users are visiting. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the Covid-19 outbreak. It supplements our main Privacy Notice which is available above.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the Covid-19 outbreak.  Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health.  Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the outbreak.  In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.

Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Using this law the Secretary of State has required NHS Digital, NHS England and Improvement, Arm’s Length Bodies (such as Public Health England), local authorities, health organisations and GPs to share confidential patient information to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak.  Any information used or shared during the Covid-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data.  Further information is available on gov.uk here and some FAQs on this law are available here.

During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the Covid-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information.  This includes National Data Opt-Outs. However in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected.  Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply.  It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access Requests (SARs) and new opt out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.

In order to look after your health and care needs we may share your confidential patient information including health and care records with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text message or email.

We will also be required to share personal confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak.  Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of to support the Covid-19 response is here.

NHS England and Improvement and the NHSX have developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the health and care system to information the Covid-19 response.  This includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and NHS Digital.  New data will include 999 call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data as well as data provided by patient themselves. All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation.

In such circumstances where you tell us you are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you.  Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require, and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.

Personal Data: any information relating to a living person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier.

Special Category Data: personal data which is classed as more sensitive so therefore requires more protection. For example, information about a person’s race, ethnic origin, politics, religion, trade union membership, genetics, biometrics, health, sex life or sexual orientation.