Privacy Notice
This notice explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect, how we use and may share information about you. We are required to give you this information under data protection law.
Who are we?
Care Funding Guidance collects, uses and is responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are regulated under the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws. Our Data Protection Officer is Owain Wright.
Care Funding Guidance will work with you to help you navigate the complex and costly field of social and nursing care. We will help you to ensure that you fully understand your financial position, the state benefits you are entitled to and the different ways of paying for care.
The personal information we collect and use
Information collected by us
In the course of working with you, we may collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:
Personal Data
• Personal information e.g: your name, address, telephone number, date of birth
• Contact details for members of your family and support network
• Information about your finances, e.g. bank details, income, benefits, care fees etc
• Information about any health conditions or disabilities that may apply to you
• Information about you and your circumstances
• Information about any health and safety concerns that may be relevant
• Information about your needs and wishes
Collecting and sharing your personal information
In the course of working with you, we may collect information from, or share it, with some of the following third parties (non exhaustive list) but only with your permission:
• Advocates, Deputies, Legal Power of Attorney
• Family Members and carers
• Legal representatives, i.e. Solicitors
• ‘Nearest Relative’
• Other Professionals
• Partner Agencies e.g. vol orgs, statutory orgs, care providers etc.
This data sharing enables us to personalise the service we are providing to you and ensure that you are receiving the best support possible.
How we use your personal information
We use your personal information to:
• Create a secure and comprehensive record of all of the work that we do with and for you
• Fully understand your needs
• Provide guidance and information on how to manage your care costs
• Process complaints and compliments regarding the services we have provided
• Analyse the service that we are providing
How long your personal data will be kept
Records will be retained for no longer than ten years from the last involvement with Care Funding Guidance before being securely destroyed.
Reasons we can collect and use your personal information
When we collect your personal data, we rely on the following legal bases:
• Consent – You must provide us with your consent (written or verbal) in order for us to collect and retain your personal data. If you do not give your consent for use to use the information that we request then it will severely restrict the quality of the service that we can provide you with.
• On rare occasions we may use personal data for reasons of substantial public interest (e.g. Safeguarding of individuals at risk).
Your Rights
Under the GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge that allow you to:
• Know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it
• Ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request)
• Ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you
• Object to direct marketing
• Make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office
Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:
• Ask us to delete information we hold about you
• Have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation
• Object to decisions being made that significantly affect you
• Object to how we are using your information
• Stop us using your information in certain ways
We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties. Please note: your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.
For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
Keeping your personal information secure
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 need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
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 to Contact
Please contact the Data Protection Officer at Care Funding Guidance to exercise any of your rights, or if you have a complaint about why your information has been collected, how it has been used or how long we have kept it for.
You can contact our Data Protection Officer, Owain Wright, at owain.wright@carefundingguidance.org or write to the Data Protection Officer, Care Funding Guidance, PO Box 622, Maidstone, Kent ME17 4WE.
The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 03031 231113.