Adult Social Care - Leaflet IL02

Adult Social Care - You and your information

"We have a legal duty to keep information about you confidential."

Introduction

By law, everyone who works for us must keep information about you confidential.

We aim to deliver social-care services that are focused on your needs. And we want to make sure that the widest range of services is available to you so you get the best possible social care. To help us do this, it is important that everyone providing services to you can share information about your health and welfare within safe guidelines.

We will keep information about you and the services we provide for you in your record folder or on our computer system.

The records may include:

basic details about you, such as your name, address, date of birth and next of kin (the person we should contact in an emergency);

all the contact we have had with you; and

details about the services we may arrange for you.

We may use some of this information for other reasons, such as planning for the future, training our staff and answering for our actions.

The main reasons why we may need your information

We may need your information so we can:

arrange the right services for you;

deliver combined health and social-care services;

manage and plan services; and

review, answer for and learn how to improve what we do.

No-one in the Adult Social Care Department should look at the information unless they really need to.

Keeping information safe and secure

You may be receiving social-care services from other people as well as from us. So that we can all work together for your benefit, we may need to share some information about you with the other people who are also providing social-care services.

We only ever use or pass on information about you if people have a genuine need for it and it is in your interests. Anyone who receives information from us must keep it confidential by law.

We may share your information with hospitals, community and mental-health trusts, primary care trusts (PCTs), general practitioners (GPs), and education and housing departments.

If you agree, we will keep your relatives, friends and carers up to date with the progress of the social-care services we are providing for you.

You are in control

We must get your permission before we can share your information - this is your right. If you choose not to give us permission to share your information, you should remember that this may lead to difficulties and delays in providing services to you.

Exceptions

We will not give anyone information that identifies you without your permission, unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the health and safety of other people is at risk or if we have to pass on information by law. We may have to pass information to:

a court of law, including a coroner's court;

a mental-health review tribunal;

a registered homes' tribunal;

the Local Government Ombudsman (so they can investigate a complaint against us);

the Health and Safety Commission (so they can investigate an accident);

the Secretary of State for Health (so they can carry out an inquiry); or

a senior police officer (so they can prevent or detect, or prosecute the people responsible for, a serious crime).

When we have finished our work with you, we will keep the records for a time, depending on the type of work involved. However, we do not keep them for longer than is necessary.

Research and planning

We may also need your information to help us train social-care staff and to carry out social-care research for the benefit of everyone. Normally, we will remove details that identify you (such as your name and address) before allowing researchers and service managers to see your information.

You have the right to see your social-care records. One of your rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 is the right to ask for a copy of all the information we have about you.

We have had an open access policy since 1985. This means that only you can see your records to check that they are accurate and to reassure yourself that we are acting or recording information properly.

We want to make our work with you open.

You can see the information that we have gathered and recorded about you. We will not be able to show you any material that has come from outside social-care services (for example, medical or legal information) unless we have permission from the people it came from.

If you want to see your records, you must write to the social care office or member of staff you are in contact with. Even if you no longer have any contact with us, you are still entitled to see the information we have about you. Please phone Social Care Direct who will put you in touch with the right person.

When you contact us, we will reply as quickly as possible and certainly within 28 days. We will tell you when and where you can see your records. If you have any complaints about us sharing the information you give us, please contact your social worker or the member of staff who is working with you.

Getting more copies of this leaflet

This leaflet is one of a series of leaflets that we produce about our services in East Sussex. You can also get leaflets for Children's Social Care. You can get more copies from Social Care Direct.

IL01 Adult Social Care - who we are and what we do

IL02 You and your information

IL03 Comments, compliments and complaints

IL04 Voluntary and community organisations in East Sussex

IL05 Community support for adults

IL06 Choosing a care home

IL07 Daycare services

IL08 Home-care services

IL09 Physical disability services

IL10 Services for people with sight or hearing problems

IL11 Learning disability services

IL12 Paying for services

IL13 Direct Payments - managing your own support

IL14 Involving users and carers

IL15 'Supporting People' Programme

IL16 Safeguarding adults - protecting vulnerable adults from abuse

Because we have added new titles to this series, the numbering for previous titles may be different in the new editions.

You can get all our leaflets in large print, in Braille, on audio tape, on CD or in other languages if you ask us. Please phone Social Care Direct on 0845 608 0191.

They are also available in mp3 and PDF formats, which you can download onto your computer from our website at www.eastsussex.gov.uk.

How to contact us

You can get more information about social care services by contacting Social Care Direct.

Phone: 0845 608 0191 (calls charged at a local rate)

Minicom: 0845 608 0191 (calls charged at a local rate)

Fax: 01323 466567

E-mail: socialcaredirect@eastsussex.gov.uk

Website: www.eastsussex.gov.uk

You can also contact us by text message from your mobile phone. Please text to 07797 878111.

Please note: Sussex Mad is only helping share this information, not actually involved with creating it, so please send questions to the Social Care Direct not Sussex Mad! If you have any more information on this leaflet and think it would be useful, please send it to me and I will add it.