Brookholme Croft Ltd is required by law to tell you about your rights and our obligations regarding our collecting and processing any of your personal information, which you might provide to us. We have a range of policies and procedures to ensure that any personal information you supply is only with your active consent and will always be held securely and treated confidentially in line with the applicable regulations.
Brookholme Croft Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data, so when we mention “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice, we are referring to Brookholme Croft Ltd.
What personal information we collect about: 1) service users 2) employees, and 3) third parties
1. Service users.
As a registered care provider, we must collect some personal information on our service users, including financial information, which is essential to our being able to provide effective care and support. The information is contained in individual files (manual and electronic) and other record systems, all of which are subject to strict security and authorized access policies. Personal information that becomes inactive, e.g. from enquiries or prospective users who do not enter the service is also kept securely for as long as it is needed, before being safely disposed of.
2. Employees and volunteers.
The service operates a safe recruitment policy to comply with the regulations in which all personal information obtained, including CVs and references, is, like service users’ information, securely kept, retained and disposed of in line with data protection requirements. All employees are aware of their right to access any information about them.
3. Third parties.
All personal information obtained about others associated with the delivery of the care service, including contractors, visitors, etc. will be protected in the same ways as information on service users and employees.
Examples of the information we may gather are your name, address, date of birth, gender, marital status, bank account details, payment details, heath details or medical records etc.
How we collect information
The bulk of service users’, employees’ and thirds parties’ personal information is collected directly from them or through form filling, mainly manually, but also electronically for some purposes, e.g. when contacting the service through its website. Third parties who may provide us with information are doctors or other healthcare providers.
With service users, we might continue to build on the information provided in enquiry and referral forms, and, for example, from needs assessments, which feed into their care and support plans.
With employees, personal information is obtained directly and with consent through such means as references, testimonials and criminal records (DBS) checks. When recruiting staff, we seek applicants explicit consent to obtain all the information needed for us to decide to employ them.
All personal information obtained to meet our regulatory requirements will always be treated in line with our explicit consent, data protection and confidentiality policies. We may collect information via ‘automated technologies and interactions’ as data will be collected when a user visits your website via the use of cookies, such as the users IP address, browser type and version, time zone settings, operating systems and platform and other technology data on the device used to access the website.
What we do with personal information
All personal information obtained on service users, employees and third parties is used only to ensure that we provide a service, which is consistent with our purpose of providing a person-centred care service, which meets all regulatory standards and requirements. It will not be disclosed or shared for any other purpose. Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, and where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement.
With whom we might share information
We only share the personal information of service users, employees and others with their consent on a “need to know” basis, observing strict protocols in doing so. Most information sharing of service users’ information is with other professionals and agencies involved with their care and treatment. Likewise, we would not disclose information about our employees without their clear agreement, e.g. when providing a reference.
The only exceptions to this general rule would be where we are required by law to provide information, e.g. to help with a criminal investigation. Even when seeking to notify the local authority of a safeguarding matter or the Care Quality Commission of an incident that requires us to notify it, we would only do so with consent or ensure that the information provided is treated in confidence.
Where we provide information for statistical purposes, the information is aggregated and provided anonymously so that there is no privacy risk involved in its use.
We may share data with internal parties i.e. staff, contractors, consultants and/or external parties such as service providers and/or professional advisors.
How personal information held by the care provider can be accessed
There are procedures in place to enable any staff member, employee or third party whose personal information we possess and might process in some way to have access to that information on request. The right to access includes both the information and any uses which we might have made of the information.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only access your personal data on our instruction and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
How long we keep your data
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
By law we have to keep basic information about our service users for six years after they cease being service users for tax purposes. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
How we keep our privacy policies up to date
The staff appointed to control and process personal information in our organisation are delegated to assess all privacy risks continuously and to carry out comprehensive reviews of our data protection policies, procedures and protocols at least annually.
Use of cookies
Cookies are sometimes used to improve the website experience of a visitor to a website. We may sometimes use cookies on this website to record aggregate statistical information about the visitors to our site and the use that our visitors make of the website. When collected this information is used by us to improve our website and further enhance the visitor experience.
We may also use the cookies to gather information about your general internet use to further assist us in developing or website. Where used, these cookies are downloaded to your computer automatically. This cookie file is stored on the hard drive of your computer.
Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive and then stored there and transferred to us where appropriate to help us to improve our website and the service that we provide to you. All computers have the ability to decline cookies. You can easily decline or remove cookies from your computer using the settings within the Internet Options section in your computer control panel.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data including:
- Request access to your personal data.
- Request correction of your personal data.
- Request erasure of your personal data.
- Object to processing of your personal data.
- Request restriction of processing your personal data.
- Request transfer of your personal data.
- Right to withdraw consent.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
Contact us
If you have any queries regarding our Privacy Policy please contact us on 01246 230006 or email brookholmecroft@yahoo.co.uk