Early Help privacy notice

This notice relates to Islington Council’s Early Help services and explains what personal data (information) we hold about you, how we collect it, how we use it and may share it. It also includes the lawful bases on which it does this and should be read together with our corporate privacy notice which provides more detail about how we process your data as an organisation and your rights.

Our Early Help services

Provides and works with a wide range of support services to children, young people and families. Dependent on your need, we can provide support through universal, targeted or specialist services, working with you, other teams within Children’s Services and partner agencies, to make sure you get quick and easy access to a wide range of support when you need it. We aim to reach families who are vulnerable to life’s challenges and those with multiple complex needs. Our services are offered across the borough in a range of community settings.

What information we collect, hold and use

When you use our targeted early help services we collect, hold and use information that you have provided to us which include:

• personal information (such as name, date of birth and address)

• characteristics (such as gender, ethnicity and disability)

• details of the services and events that you have accessed through Early Help targeted services

• Information you provide to us through the early help assessment and family plans (this helps us understand what support you need, by whom and when. This is also monitored to make sure that we have the right involvement at the right time)

We also work with and collect information from other sources, that can include:

• schools (attendance and exclusion information, details to support statutory processes, unique pupil number and pupil characteristics)

• employment services from our internal services and the Department of Work and Pensions (adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion and young people who are at risk of worklessness)

• the Probation Service and Police (anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse, criminal offenses, probation information and young people missing from home)

• health services (information about your additional requirements)

• housing providers

This list is not exhaustive. To access the current list of categories of information we process, please see Children, employment and skills privacy notice.

Why we collect and use this information

As a Local Authority we ensure that the use of personal/special category data meets all of our legal and statutory duties.
We use personal/special category data to:

1. support children, young people and families, and to monitor their progress
2. provide children, young people and families with help that meets their personal, social (wellbeing), emotional, academic and employment needs
3. assess the quality of our services
4. evaluate and improve our policies on how we provide support to families
5. safeguard and protect children and young people
6. to contact you and get feedback on our services and strategies, to ensure we can deliver a better service
7. to let you know about events/activities/services that may be of interest to you, if you have agreed for us to do so

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

• to carry out a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority in our capacity as a local authority

• you have provided us with consent to process your personal data for a specific purpose

In addition, we also rely on the following lawful bases for processing special category data:

• Protecting the vital interests of children and young people
• Reasons of substantial public interest; and
• Health and Social Care treatment and management

Collecting this information

We collect personal/special category information through various sources including assessments, from other professionals, telephone conversations, email communication, face to face visits, surveys and questionnaires. In order to comply with GDPR, we will inform you at the point of collection, whether you are required to provide certain information to us or if you have a choice in this.

Storing personal data

We hold information securely for a specific period of time in-line with the council’s Retention Schedule. Unless specified in the legislation or stated in the Retention Schedule, data will be deleted in line with the Limitation Act 1980 (Section 2). 

For more information on our retention periods and how we keep your data safe, please see our Retention Schedule.

Who we share this information with

We routinely share information with:

• Government departments such as the Department for Education (DfE), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Home Office
• Other council departments such as Adult Social Care teams, Finance departments, etc
• Commissioned partners/contractors who undertake our work
• Health providers, such as the NHS
• Other District/Borough Councils
• Police for the purposes of fraud and crime prevention
• Education providers such as schools that a child attends or has attended
• Other Local Authorities who have contact with a child
• Regulators, such as Ofsted
• Support services for a child or a parent
• Courts for the purpose of any proceedings in relation to a child or adult; and
• Any other agency responsible for safeguarding children and young people

We share your personal information with the above partners and organisation’s as part of our contractual agreements and legal duties as a local authority.

The Troubled Families Programme Evaluation

Please see the privacy notice for the Troubled Families Programme to find out how we use information about you and your family, to provide you and your family with the help and support you need. The privacy notice also covers how information is used for the national evaluation of the programme.

Your rights and requesting access to your personal data

Under data protection legislation, parents, carers and children have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for your personal information contact FOIA@islington.gov.uk.

If you have been dissatisfied with the service you have been provided and have exhausted the council’s corporate complaints process, you can refer your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman.

You also have the right to:

• object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress
• prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing
• object to decisions being taken by automated means
• in certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed; and
• a right to seek redress, either through the ICO, or through the courts

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Contact

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, please contact:

Leila Ridley – Information Compliance Manager and Data Protection Officer

Information Governance Team

Resources

Islington Council

4th Floor, 7 Newington Barrow Way

London N7 7EP