Adult Social Care privacy notice

Adult social care and health

We provide information, advice, and support for individuals and their carers who:

have a physical and/or sensory impairment
have learning difficulties
have mental health support needs
are over 65 years and need support
care for a friend or relative or need support to keep people safe

Under the Care Act 2014, we must carry out assessments for anyone who appears to require care and support, regardless of their likely eligibility for state-funded care.

The Act gives us a duty to support individuals to be independent and safe in the community for as long as possible.

Assessments of need will focus on how they impact on your wellbeing and the outcomes that you want to achieve. We deliver support to you by working with a number of agencies in the public, private and voluntary sector to organise the appropriate level of care.

The National Data Opt-Out

Your health information may be used by the NHS or government to:

improve the quality and standards of care provided
research into the development of new treatments
prevent illness and diseases
monitor safety
plan services

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at the:

NHS Health Research Authority website covering health and care research
Understanding Patient Data website covering how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made

The National Data Opt-Out was introduced on 25 May 2018. It allows you to opt out from the use of your data for anything other than your individual care and treatment, preventing it being used for research or planning purposes as listed above. The Opt-Out is in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian in the Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-Outs

The National Data Opt-Out applies to the NHS and some of the activities of the council. If you are happy with use of your data for research and service planning, you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

Health agencies and councils must check the NHS National Data Opt-Out system before using your data for research or planning.

You can change your National Data Opt-Out choice at any time by using the online service or by clicking on Your Health in the NHS App, and selecting 'Choose if data from your health records is shared for research and planning'.

Safeguarding & Prevention

For those adults who fit into the categories previously listed we have a duty to undertake assessments and provide support to help individuals stay independent. We also have a duty to protect adults in those categories from safeguarding risks. This might be those at risk of physical harm or financial abuse for example.

The Barnet Adults Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) acts a single front door for Adults in need of additional support and/or protection. Co-located within the MASH is a partnership of professionals from a range of agencies who work together to prevent harm and deliver support to adults in need. Members of the Adults MASH include:

the police
health agencies and GPs
housing providers like Barnet Homes
the council’s children’s services,
the Fire service
Probation service
domestic violence services

We will provide information to the police so they can carry out their responsibilities for the prevention and detection of crime.

You can make a safeguarding referral on the council’s Adults MASH website page

Our work with Health colleagues

To provide linked and person-centred social care, we work closely with NHS colleagues. These include:

Health care agencies and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG)
Practitioners, acute health services, specialist health professionals, GPs, and district nurses
Health staff in hospitals via our hospital social work teams
Hospital admissions services to be aware when someone we work with is admitted
Health colleagues in our integrated Mental Health Service
Health colleagues in our integrated Learning Disabilities Service

We share information about how cases are managed to enable us to work together and provide the best possible service to you.

NHS Number

If you are receiving support from adult social care, then the NHS may share your NHS Number with us. By using the same number, we can work together more closely to improve your care and support.

The use of joined-up information across health and social care brings many benefits, such as for discharge of patients into social care. Delays in discharge (commonly known as bed blocking) can occur because details of social care involvement are not readily available to the staff on the hospital ward. The hospital does not know who to contact to discuss the ongoing care of a patient. The linking of social care and health information via the NHS Number helps hospital staff quickly identify if social care support is already in place and who the most appropriate contact is. Ongoing care can be planned earlier in the process because hospital staff will know who to talk to.

Additional benefits of sharing the NHS Number are:

better coordination and safer care across health and social care enabled through the sharing of real-time information
better coordination of discharges from hospital into social care
more time to spend on planning and coordinating social care because health staff can identify and involve social care staff earlier in the process
earlier intervention to maximise the opportunities or reablement services leading to greater independence for patients

The Financial Debt and Wider Vulnerabilities’ Project

According to the Vulnerability Act 2020, some people are at increased risk of vulnerability because of their social, socio-economic, cognitive, ethnic, linguistic or health related factors impacting on themselves, their families or their circumstances.

The council’s Financial Debt and Wider Vulnerabilities’ Project aims to prevent debt and support vulnerable people. It does this through bringing together information from different services, like Adult Social Care, Council Tax and Benefits, and Children’s Social Care, along with credit and debt information from credit agencies, to develop a holistic picture of their vulnerability across council services. The project aims to improve the outcomes and quality of life of clients and identify where support tailored to individuals may help.

The project gives the council evidence to inform service delivery and prevention strategies to better equip teams with insights into residents’ needs (e.g. type of need, geographic area, commonalities). This improved knowledge then leads to a better understanding of resident needs and wider vulnerabilities (e.g. spread of household debts, vulnerabilities known to the Adults Social Care team, Children’s Social Care team, homelessness risk, needs of Barnet Homes team and commonalities between the areas.

Contractors or Providers

The council sometimes employs organisations or contactors to carry out work for us. We provide them with the personal information that they need to carry out their work.

Relevant information about you may be passed to external organisations to arrange support to meet your health and social care needs. The types of organisation we may pass your information to are:

Providers of residential and nursing care services
Providers of respite services
Providers of community services whom the council has a contract with
Other Local Authorities if you are placed or is transferred outside of the borough

Improving our Services

We may use your information to help us understand how our service is being used, and to work with you to improve how we do things. This allows us to better manage money and resources. If we share or publish the social care summary statistics that we gather, we never identify you personally in the report.

Personal information collected:

address & contact details
date of birth
gender
financial information
equalities information like racial or ethnic origin
property information
criminal or prosecution information
health or medical information
social services records
other agencies involved
housing information
information from the local authority from where you live and previously lived
family and relationship information
NHS number and hospital ID, or next of kin (NOK)
support network
referral or assessment Information
images in photographs

Where we get your information:

you
people acting on your behalf e.g., lawyer or planning agent
referral from GPs, the police, councils or providers
DWP
police
judicial agencies e.g., courts
health agencies or GP
legal representatives
expert witnesses
council services (Adults and Health)
HMRC
government departments (Immigration, Inland Revenue, professional regulatory bodies)
probation or prison services
UK Border Agency
council legal service
other local authorities
voluntary agencies or third sector
housing providers like Barnet Homes
specialist organisations, e.g. Telecare (Argenti). This organisation offers clients the opportunity to obtain mostly sensor technology which can assist a person to feel safe inside or outside their home

We share your information with:

the police and fire service
judicial agencies e.g., courts
health agencies or GP
legal representatives
government departments like the Department of Health or the Department of Education
professional regulatory bodies
UK Border Agency
council legal service
other local authorities
voluntary agencies or third sector
housing providers like Barnet Homes to help them understand your health or social care needs if you are being affected by an eviction or a decant of one of their buildings
care homes or residential facilities
Home Office
Office of the Public Guardian
environmental services like recycling & waste e.g., for hoarding or assisted collection,
children’s services for both for individuals transitioning between child and adult social care, and to carry out their statutory responsibility to safeguard children in need or at risk and
finance services for council tax and benefits

We will work with you to choose what, if any, information about you that we provide to your family, friends and support network.

How long we keep your information

In most circumstances, we retain your information for 10 years. All exceptions to this are outlined below:

if your support or service is assessed as Adult Protection (Safeguarding), we retain your information for 10 years from last contact or 10 years from date of death
for clients receiving support from the Mental Health Service, we retain your information for 20 years from last contact or 10 years from date of death
if you have made a complaint, sent us a compliment, or made representation, we retain your information for 10 years from last contact or 10 years from date of death
for services involving financial assessments and invoicing, we retain your documentation for 10 years from last contact or 10 years from date of death
for Deputyship, Property and Protection, we retain your data for 10 years from last contact, a nil balance, or date of death
for next of kin, we retain your data for 10 years from last contact

Legislation that applies

Care Act 2014 (Encourages caregivers to adopt a person-centred approach with vulnerable Safeguarding adults)
The Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015 (a duty on health and adult social care providers to share information about a person's care with other health and care professionals)
Health and Safety Care Act 2012 (Legal duties about health inequalities)
Equalities Act 2020 (established equality duties for all public sector bodies which aim to integrate consideration of the advancement of equality into the day-to-day business of all bodies subject to the duty)
Health Act 2009 Chapter 3 (Direct Payments - the electronic transfer of funds to make payments)
Mental Health Act 1983, 2007 (Is designed to give health professionals the powers, in certain circumstances, to detain, assess and treat people with mental disorders in the interests of their health and safety or for public safety)
Local Safeguarding Children & Adults Boards Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/90)
Mental Capacity Act 2005: Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards
Social Security Administration Act 1992 (the main piece of legislation dealing with the administration of social security benefits)
Housing Grants and Regeneration Act (revised 2016)