Adult Social Care

This privacy notice relates to our Adult Social Care services. It provides additional information that specifically relates to this particular service, and should be read together with our general privacy notice, which provides more detail.

We've made some of our privacy notices easier to understand. We hope they help children and some adults to learn more about what we do with their data.

Whenever you get in touch with us either in person, by phone or online, we’ll usually need your basic contact details: name, address, telephone number, email address etc, together with enough information about your enquiry to be able to help you quickly and effectively.

If you receive or have received social care and support from Manchester City Council, we will hold a social care record about you. This is stored in an electronic database and we may also hold some paper based information about you.

Your record will contain:

• Basic details about you such as your name, address and date of birth;
• The names and contact details of your close relatives and carers;
• Information about your health, your ability to carry out day-to-day tasks, and your home situation;
• Letters, notes and reports about the support we provide for you and about the help you need;
• Plans for providing support, and details of support you receive;
• Things that other organisations (such as health or other care services) tell us about your situation to help us to better understand your needs;
• The names of your family members, carers, and information about any support services or professionals who have worked or are working with you.

Some of the information we hold in your social care record will be more sensitive personal details about you, such as your race or ethnic origin, sex and sexual orientation, religious beliefs, your physical and mental health etc.  This is known as Special Categories of Personal Data.

It is important for us to know this information, for example, if you have a disability or language issue, as this may influence the way our services need to be delivered to meet your needs.  We also use this information for equalities monitoring purposes, so we can be sure that we’re reaching and responding to all sectors of the community, inclusive of ethnicity, age and disability.

We use your personal data for the following reasons:

• To assess you or a family member’s needs and identify appropriate services or support;
• To provide our social care services to you or a family member; for example in order to plan and provide care for you or a family member;
• To maintain records of the care and services we provide;
• To monitor the quality of the services we provide and check how our services are performing overall, for example by requesting your feedback;
• To carry out financial assessments, for example under the Care Act 2014;
• To log and respond to any complaints about our services;
• In order to improve our service delivery, we may use personal information to create statistics which help us to see how our services are being used and how they should be funded.

We are the Data Controller.  This means we decide how to use the personal information we hold about you. We hold your personal information in an electronic system which is accessible by our social care staff, as well as some partner organisations commissioned to deliver services on our behalf.

We will only use your personal data where it is necessary in order to perform our public tasks and duties as a Local Authority under Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”).  This is to meet our statutory obligations under the Care Act 2014.

In some cases, we may be required to share your information by law (Art 6(1)(c) of the UK GDPR) or where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Art 6(1)(d) of the UK GDPR).

We will only use any special categorise of personal data where it is necessary to deliver social care services (Art 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR), and where there is a substantial public interest (such as to carry out our statutory or legal duties, for the prevention of crime) (Art 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR).

We may also need to use special category data:

●      where it is necessary to protect someone in an emergency (Art 9(2)(c) of the UK GDPR)

●      where it is necessary for legal cases (Art 9(2)(f) of the UK GDPR)

●      where it is necessary for employment purposes (Art 9(2)(b) of the UK GDPR)

●      where it is necessary for archiving, research or statistical purposes (Art 9(2)(j) of the UK GDPR)

Personal data usually comes from you.  We do receive personal data from your family members, carers, the NHS and other providers of care and support.

If you are receiving support from adult social care then the NHS may share your NHS number with us.  This is so that the NHS and ourselves are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care.  By using the same number the NHS and ourselves can work together more closely to improve your care and support.

We will use this Number in an integrated care record system known as the Greater Manchester Care Record across a number of support services including GP’s, hospitals, community services, district nurses and social care practitioners.

If you wish to object to the use of your NHS Number for social care purposes or the sharing of your personal data as part of the Greater Manchester Care Record then please contact your social worker.

Further information about the Greater Manchester Care Record can be found at https://gmwearebettertogether.com/your-privacy/

Your personal data may be shared securely to other departments within the Council, only where it is both necessary and appropriate to do so for the reasons given above.

In order to provide our services to you, we will need to securely share your personal to other organisations outside the Council.  For example, we may share your data with:

• Commissioned Delivery Partners who are delivering a service on our behalf, including:
    Domiciliary Care Providers
    Residential/Nursing care providers
    Day Care Providers
• NHS Bodies and Health Agencies
• Police
• Schools and other education providers
• Government Agencies
• Housing Agencies
• Fostering and Adoption Agencies
• Third Sector/Voluntary Agencies
• Other specialist Agencies, such as Substance Misuse
• With your legal representative or the Courts if there are any claims or proceedings.

Organisations will use this information to support you with any service or contact that you may have, which is known as ‘direct care’. It helps them provide the most appropriate care for you as an individual and they may share information with others including health professionals to ensure that they can make informed decisions. Where this information is shared, your confidentiality and privacy will be protected. To make sure this takes place, there are clear rules in our own procedures as well as national legislation.

In most situations, other people must have your permission before we can give them information about you. For example, members of your family, the Department of Works and Pensions, the Child Support Agency, the Inland Revenue or Council Tax Officers.

However, there are some circumstances when we are obliged to share information without your permission, for example:

• To protect you or another person in an emergency (for example with the police, NHS or with Immigration/Border Control)
• For the administration of justice (such as providing information to Court)
• To meet other legal obligations, such as:
  *  where we are required to share safeguarding information by law to other agencies and other Councils
  *  where we are required to provide information to an auditor or standards body such as Care Quality Commission (CQC), or as part of any formal inquiry or investigation    

Where the law allows, the information collected about you when you use health and social care services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with: 

• improving the quality and standards of care provided 
• research into the development of new treatments  
• preventing illness and diseases 
• monitoring safety 
• planning services 

The National Data Opt Out is a service that enables the public to register to opt out of their confidential patient information being shared/used for purposes beyond their individual care and treatment.  To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit the NHS website regarding Your NHS data matters. 

Our retention schedule sets out how long we keep personal information for.

You can find out more about your rights regarding the personal information used for this service. Your rights apply to the information held by the Council as a data controller, and the information we hold on behalf of the other data controllers.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time. If you have any questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you're unhappy about how we process your information.