Devon County Council (DCC) is collecting and or processing your personal data as a Data Controller under Data Protection Legislation and our ICO registration number is Z6475582. This privacy notice concerns the processing of personal data that takes place as part of Family Group Conferences.

Family Group Conference Plus is a service aimed at enabling families to make changes for their children or young people to improve their circumstances through Family Group Conferences and other meetings.

This notice explains what information we collect, why we collect it and how we keep it secure. It also explains your rights and our legal obligation. Should you wish to find out more about Devon County Council’s data protection policies please contact our Data Protection Officer.

We will notify you of any changes to this privacy notice

This privacy notice was last updated on the 10th of September 2024. If we use your personal data for any new purposes, updates will be made to the policy information and changes communicated, where necessary in accordance with current data protection legislation. Any queries relating to this privacy notice please contact the Data Protection Officer.

What information are we processing?

In order to ensure that children receive appropriate support, we need to collect and manage your personal information including:

Name
Date of birth
Maiden Name
Contact details
Spouses, partners, ex partners address,
Family members,
Location information,
Dependants,
Ethnicity
Religious or philosophic beliefs,
Criminal offence,
Photograph of your child
Physical or Mental Health details

Purpose of collecting or processing your personal data

The Family Group Conference Service collects and processes personal data from you and your child for the following reasons:

Planning for sufficiency
Carrying out audit and research activities
Reviewing and improving the service we offer you
Compliance with our statutory obligations
Conducting assessments and person centred plans
Service delivery
Service improvement and planning
Prevention and detection of crime or fraud
Research
Statistical analysis and reporting – such as the Family Voice Research project
Safeguarding
Vital Interests

The legal basis for us collecting your personal data

We collect and use your personal information to comply with our legal obligations under:

Children Act 1989
Care Standards Act 2000
Children Act 2004
Children and Young Persons Act 2008
Local Government Act
Localism Act 2011
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Mental Health Act 1983, 2007
Local Safeguarding Children & Adults Boards Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/9)
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Welfare Reform Act 2012
Children Act 1989
Adoption and Children Act 2002
Mental Health Act 1983

Personal data that is collected for any of the purposes outlined in this notice is never used for direct marketing purposes and is not sold on to any other third parties.

Recipients or categories of recipients that we may share your personal data with

We may need to share specific information by consent with other agencies or SCC departments. This may be necessary to facilitate the support process e.g. other local authorities who wish to have access to your information, or with Ofsted (in the event of a local authority inspection of children’s services.)

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law:

The local authority in whose area you live in
Other SCC departments with whom you have been in contact
NSPCC
Health
Schools
Other professionals involved or previously involved with applicants or their children
Other Local Authorities, past and present where we are working to support you
CAFCASS
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
Ofsted
With the Department for Education as part of the Family Voice research initiative

If you are receiving support from Childrens Social Care then we may contact health professionals for further information, protocols and behaviour management plans.
If we feel that it is necessary to share your personal data with professionals to ensure you or someone you work with is safeguarded from harm, we rely upon the provisions of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and Children Act 1989 & 2004. Where it is necessary to share medical or social care information for these purposes, we rely upon article 9(2)(h) of the General Data Protection Regulation (information necessary for medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems).

We may also need to share some personal data about you, so that we can support third party organisations to discharge their regulatory requirements. This includes organisations such as;

The data protection regulator (the Information Commissioner’s Office)
The Care Quality Commission

We may also share information to enable us to comply with court orders and other legal obligations. If this is necessary, we will only share the minimum amount of personal data needed for this purpose.

International transfers

Devon County Council does not intend to transfer personal data to countries that are outside of the scope of UK data protection laws.

How long will we hold your personal data?

We will not keep your information for any longer than we need to. For more information about how we will use your information, contact fgcplus@devon.gov.uk.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection legislation you have the right to request a copy of their personal records held by us, this is called a Subject Access Request (SAR). Details of how to make a request can be found here.

Further details on your rights under data protection legislation and how to exercise them, are available here.

Complaints

If you have any comments, queries or complaints about this privacy notice or the processing of your personal data please contact our Data Protection Officer.

If you wish to complain about the way that your personal data has been handled by Devon County Council, you should write to the Data Protection Officer and clearly outline your case. Your complaint will then be investigated in accordance with the Council’s customer feedback procedure.

Alternatively, if you are not happy with the way that DCC is handling your personal data, you are entitled to appeal to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). The Information Commissioners Office enforces and oversees the Data Protection Regulations.

Contact details for the ICO are:

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

Email:casework@ico.org.uk

Automated decisions

Devon County Council does not intend to use the personal data you provide to use to make automated decisions that will affect you or your family.