Information held about you

In the course of providing advice and support for a child, young person and their family we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

  • Personal information (such as name, address, contact details, date of birth, gender)
  • Special category characteristics (such as ethnicity and disability)
  • Reasons for support (such as what is working well and what you are worried about)
  • Assessment and plan information (such as further details of your issues and challenges, and how we are going to work together to bring about the changes you want to see)
  • Details of events and services that you access through us

We also obtain personal information from the following other sources:

  • Details of any criminal offences (such as youth offending, domestic abuse, young person missing from home, crime and anti-social behaviour) from the police (where consent has been given)
  • Details of victims of youth crime from the police (where consent has been given)
  • Attendance and exclusion information (such as sessions attended, number of absences, reasons, details to support statutory processes), pupil characteristics, and unique pupil number, from your child's school (where consent has been given)
  • Involvement with other Herefordshire children's services teams from our existing records
  • Information about your additional requirements from health services (where consent has been given)
Who is processing your data

Herefordshire Council is the data controller for the information collected in relation to virtual groups run by the early help service.

How we will use the information we hold about you

We will use the information to:

  • Enable integrated working with other teams and organisations to ensure you receive the right support at the right time
  • Plan and provide the most appropriate level of support to you and your family
  • Support you to access relevant support and advice services and groups
  • Undertake our duties around compulsory school attendance
  • Undertake our duties around education and training of pupils aged 16+, to support and reduce those not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)
  • Undertake our duties to refer families as required to local housing authorities to reduce homelessness
  • Evaluate and quality assure the services we provide, including seeking your feedback on the services you and your family have received
  • Tell you about forthcoming events, activities or parenting courses that may be of interest to you, if you have consented for us to do so
How the law allows us to use your information

We collect and use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, and to carry out tasks in the public interest. If we need to collect special category (sensitive) personal information, we rely upon reasons of substantial public interest (safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk, and equality of opportunity or treatment), and/or for the provision of social care (if a case needs to be stepped up to children's social work services). These legal bases are underpinned by the following legislation:

Who we will share your information with
  • Teams within Herefordshire Council working to improve outcomes for children and young people
  • Commissioned providers of local authority services (such as Homestart, Vennture, Climb, Young Carers support, NEET support, mental health services and education services and schools (with your agreement)
  • Partner organisations where necessary, which may include health visitors, midwives, housing providers, police, school nurses, doctors and mental health workers (with your agreement)
  • Ofsted as part of inspection processes
  • We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law
How long we keep your personal information

We will hold your personal information in relation to early help services securely and retain for six years after case closure.

Your rights

Under data protection legislation you have a number of rights regarding your data, including the right to make a request for a copy of some or all of your personal information we hold about you.

If you need further information on this, you should speak to the early help team in the first instance, or you can contact the council's data protection officer at informationgovernance@herefordshire.gov.uk

Further information

Further information about data protection is available from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Contact details for the ICO are:

Service web page

Early help and support for families page

Last updated date
September 2023