Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D, is committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services.

This Privacy Notice explains how we use information about you and how we protect your privacy. You can be assured that any information we collect about you will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

2. Do you know what personal information is?

Personal information can be anything that identifies and relates to a living person. This can include information that when put together with other information can then identify a person. For example, this could be your name and contact details. We collect certain information or data about you when you use our website. This includes:

  • Forms you complete, questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you send an email to our website
  • your IP address, and details of which version of web browser you used
  • information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques to help us improve the website
  • details to allow you to access our services, e.g. an email address (you’ll always be told when this information is being collected, and it will only be used for the purpose you provide it for).

This helps us to:

  • deal with your requests and administer our departmental functions
  • meet our statutory obligations
  • prevent and detect fraud
  • conduct our own surveys and research
  • improve the site by monitoring how you use it
  • respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
  • provide you with information about local services if you want it.

We can’t personally identify you using your data.

3. Where your data is stored

Your data is stored on our secure servers in the UK or in the EEA.

It may also be stored outside of Europe, where it could be viewed by our staff or suppliers.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this.

4. How do we protect your information

We’ll do what we can to make sure we hold records about you (on paper and electronically) in a secure way, and we’ll only make them available to those who have a right to see them. Examples of our security include:

  • Encryption, meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code or what’s called a ‘cypher’. The hidden information is said to then be ‘encrypted’
  • Pseudonymisation, meaning that we’ll use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view. This means that someone outside of the Council could work on your information for us without ever knowing it was yours
  • Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it
  • Training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong
  • Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches)

Transmitting information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can’t guarantee the security of your data.

Any data you transmit is at your own risk.

We have procedures and security features in place to try and keep your data secure once we receive it.

We won’t share your information with any other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes, and we don’t pass on your details to other websites.

5. Disclosing your information

We may pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have any other agreements. This includes exchanging information with other public sector organisations including:

  • other departments within the Council (including the Councillors)
  • central government departments
  • law enforcement agencies
  • other organisations which deal with, or handle, public funds
  • organisations set up under Acts of Parliament
  • organisations which provide community services
  • contractors that process data on our behalf

We may also use and disclose information, in ways which do not identify individuals, for research and strategic development purposes.

6. Data Protection

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives legal rights to individuals in respect to personal data held about them.

Under the Data Protection Act, we have a legal requirement to ensure that all personal information is kept secure, accurate, up to date, and is only used for the purposes it was collected, subject only to exceptions specified in the Data Protection Act 1998.

The Information Commissioner is responsible for ensuring that individuals and organisations look after your personal data in keeping with the law. You can read more about data protection on Information Commissioner’s Office.

7. Where can I get advice?

If you have any worries or questions about how your personal information is handled please contact our Data Protection Officer at Shield@bexley.gov.uk or by calling 0203 045 4320.

For independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing issues, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number.

Alternatively, visit ico.org.uk or email casework@ico.org.uk.

8. How Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D. uses your information?

Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D. carries out work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Bexley. This work includes:

  • conducting Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews when a child dies or is seriously harmed and abuse or neglect is suspected;
  • providing multi-agency training and development to staff on safeguarding children; and
  • communicating to professionals and the public.

In order to deliver this work we sometimes need to collect personal information. The sections below explain how we use your information in each of the services.

8.1 Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

Part 3 of The Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018 and Working Together 2018 statutory guidance requires local safeguarding partners (i.e.: Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D.) to undertake reviews of cases in specific circumstances where there is potential for identifying improvements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.  These specific circumstances include where a child has died or been seriously harmed, and abuse or neglect is known or suspected.

For these reasons we collect the following information on our referral forms:

Child/Children

Name of Child / Children
Date/s of Birth
Date/s of death (if applicable)
Date/s of critical incident
Home address/es
Ethnic origin/s
Are they subject to a Child Protection Plan and/or in receipt of other services?
Whereabouts at time of critical incident
Carer/s at time of critical incident

Family Composition/Significant Others
Name
Relationship to child
DoB
Address
Legal Status and/or current criminal proceedings
Ethnic Origin
Is/was subject of a Child Protection Plan and/or in receipt of other services

For chronologies (historically Individual Management Review) we collect the following information:

We request any significant information in relation to the subject under review and their families/significant others. These include personal information such as name, age, address and medical information.

We will share this information with:

  • All Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D. partner agencies to check for their involvement with the family
  • Other identified Local Safeguarding Children Boards/ Local Safeguarding Partnerships and their partner agencies to check for involvement
  • The Learning from Practice Group to consider the case for review
  • Lead Reviewers for the case when appointed to undertake the review
  • Review Team for the case
  • Practitioners who have/had involvement with the family and have agreed to contribute to the review (via a review team member. Confidentiality is stressed.)

It is a statutory requirement to publish the findings from Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and all reports are fully anonymised to protect the identity of the children and families involved.

8.3 Learning and Development

For the purposes of learning and development opportunities we ask you for the following information when you book a course

  • Name
  • Job role and organisation
  • Telephone number and email address
  • Sector

At the learning and development course/workshop you will be asked to sign in, this is only used to confirm your attendance at the course and is destroyed once the database of attendees has been updated. Any information about access requirements will also be deleted as soon as the course has been completed.

The following information is held by Bexley SHIELD for 5 years after the course dates for the purposes of anonymous learning and development reports and as a record of when people attended training.

  • Name
  • Job role and organisation
  • Email address
  • Sector

8.4 Communications

If you sign up to receive communications from Bexley S.H.I.E.L.D. (bulletins, policy updates, and campaign and event details) we will collect and store your name and email address. This information will not be shared outside of the organisation. Your details will be stored until you request to no longer receive updates from S.H.I.E.L.D., in which case they will be deleted from the system.

We take your privacy seriously and will only use it for the reasons stated above.