Fostering service privacy notice - Privacy notices

The purpose of this privacy notice is to tell you what information we will collect about you, how we use this information and who we will share this with.

The information we will collect and use about you is:

• Personal and contact details including name, address, telephone number, email address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Family relationships and networks
• Language and ethnicity
• Employment and education
• Religion and faith
• Financial information
• Health
• Previous or current involvement with children's services departments
• Personal history including any criminal convictions
• Marital status and previous relationships
• Any applications to foster or adopt

Who provides this information:

• You
• Local authority in the area you live
• Local authority for previous addresses
• Disclosure and Barring Service
• Police service/state embassy for another country where lived
• Current employer (including voluntary positions)
• Previous employers (including voluntary positions) where the work involved children or vulnerable adults
• Previous fostering services or adoption agencies
• Schools and colleges currently attended by my/our children
• Health visitors currently allocated to my/our children
• NSPCC
• Ofsted
• Personal referees (as listed in my/our application form)
• Children, including adult children
• Former partners
• Social media

Herefordshire Council complies with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Officer as a data controller.

We will use your personal information to:

• Process your fostering application
• Access your suitability to become a foster carer
• Provide advice and guidance to prospective and approved carers
• Provide on-going supervision, support and training to prospective and approved carers
• Develop and improve our service and provide statistical returns to government departments
• Pay you as a foster carer
• Ensure that children are placed with the most appropriate foster family
• Safeguard children and monitor the stability and progress of placements

We process personal data in line with our legal obligations and to perform public duty (Fostering Service Regulations 2011; The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010 and National Minimum Standards 2011).

The legal basis for processing the data is our legal obligations for social care provision, and the necessity for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the social care department. We may also process data on occasion to protect the vital interests of individuals.

The statutory legal obligation is covered by a variety of legislation which includes:

• The Children Act 1989 and 2004
• Working Together 2015 and 2017
• Adoption Agency Regulations
• Care Leavers Act 2001
• Children and Social Work Act 2017
• Care Act
• Equality Act 2010
• Children and Family Act
• Code of Practice for SEN
• Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010
• Fostering National Minimum Standards

Where the statutory requirements apply, the social care department is obliged to process personal data for the purposes outlined above.

Any "special category" data is processed under the condition of social care processing.

We might share your personal information with:

• Departments within the council including adult services, children's services and finance
• Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children's services)
• Other local authorities
• Education providers
• Employers, both previous and current including paid and voluntary employment
• Disclosing and Barring Service
• SSAFA (the Armed Forces charity)
• NHS and other health agencies
• Voluntary and charitable agencies providing services to you
• Courts and other judicial agencies
• Probation services
• Youth offending team in your current or previous areas you lived
• Housing department and housing providers in your current or previous areas you lived
• Other central government agencies including government bodies responsible for providing funding for eligible services
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
• Other fostering and/or adoption agencies
• Birth parents, unless it is assessed as unsafe to do so

We can share this information without your specific consent when it is reasonable and necessary to do so to fulfil our public tasks or it is a legal obligation to do so.

We will only keep your information for as long as we need to. All information will be held securely and destroyed under confidential conditions.

• Application from prospective foster carers (not approved) 3 years after closure
• Approved foster carer records 10 years after ceasing to foster
• Looked after children records 75 years after closure
• Child privately fostered 25 years after closure

You have a number of rights under data protection law, including the right to request your information and to request that the information is amended or erased if incorrect.

We can rectify mistakes, however, where your opinion of the information held on record differs from that of the professional, this will be recorded as an addendum to the report. Your opinion will be shared whenever the report is shared, however the report can only be amended where there is a factual inaccuracy.

To request your records, you can do so verbally or in writing. You can inform your social worker, or send your request and provide proof of identification to the Information Governance Team, Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane, Hereford HR4 0LE or email informationgovernance@herefordshire.gov.uk

You also have the right to make a complaint about our handling of your personal data to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Fostering section