FAQ

Data controller and purpose

This privacy notice applies to you ("the service user") and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (“the council”). The council takes the privacy of your information very seriously. This privacy notice applies to the council’s use of any and all of the data provided by you or collected by the council in relation to your use of this service. It is important that you understand that sometimes we will need to share your data with other agencies where necessary or appropriate and by engaging with our service you understand that that your data may be shared.

There may be times where we will request that we make an audio recording of our conversations with you, this will only occur with your recorded consent.

The information you provide will be used by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets’ Adult Social Care Service to process incoming referrals to adult social care and to assess your care and support needs. It will also be used to process information about risk to adults and children in order to safeguard them. Some parts of Adult Social Care are provided jointly with the NHS and the participants are Joint Controllers of the data you provide.

We process your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and if you have any concerns the council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted on DPO@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Condition for processing personal data

It is necessary for us to process your personal data (name, address, contact details, health, personal and household circumstances), under GDPR article:  

1. 6(1)(a) consent
2. 6(1)(b) performance of a contract
   6(1)(c) compliance with a legal obligation
   6(1)(e) task in the public interest or official authority vested in the controller
   9(2)(b) employment, social security or social protection law, collective agreement
   9(2)(g) substantial public interest on the basis of Union or Member State law
   9(2)(h) preventative or occupational medicine, working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or management
   9(2)(j) archiving in the public interest, or scientific and historical research purposes or statistical purposes.

Other specific legislation and reasons for processing information:

1. Care Act 2014
2. Mental Health Act 2007
3. Mental Capacity Act 2005
4. Human Rights Act 1998
5. Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996

A delay in you providing the information requested may result in a delay in providing appropriate services.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only hold your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services. This is likely to be for up to 20 years after the case is closed, depending on your situation. For further details, you can view our retention schedule.

Audio recordings will only be held for two months before being automatically deleted.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this for statistical analysis of data to allow the council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.

Information sharing

Your personal information may be shared with internal departments or with external partners and agencies involved in delivering services on our behalf. As stated above this will include:

Internally

1. Initial Assessment and Hospital Service
2. Short Term Services
3. Personalisation the review service
4. Occupational Therapy Service
5. Safeguarding Service
6. Mental Health Service
7. Learning Disability Service
8. Brokerage Service
9. Children’s Service
10. Financial Assessment Team
11. Client Financial Affairs Team
12. Integrated Commissioning Service
13. Housing Services
14. Policy, Programmes and Community Insight Team
15. Safeguarding Adults Board

External

1. NHS and other Health Services
2. Police
3. Courts and Judicial Agencies
4. External Housing providers
5. Probation Services
6. Other Local Authorities
7. Commissioned domiciliary and residential care providers
   - information and advice provider
   - advocacy providers
   - carers support provider
   - direct payment provider
   - community equipment provider
   - transport providers
   - domiciliary care providers
   - residential care providers
   - older people day care
   - preventative services
8. Home Office/UKBA

The council has a duty to protect public funds and may use personal information and data-matching techniques to detect and prevent fraud, and ensure public money is targeted and spent in the most appropriate and cost-effective way. Information may be shared with internal services and external bodies like the Audit Commission, Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenue and Customs, and the Police. This activity is carried out under Article 9(2)(b) of the GDPR, under social protection law.

We have a duty to improve the health of the population we serve. To help with this, we use data and information from a range of sources including hospitals to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area. This data would normally be anonymised and never used to make decisions on a specific individual or family.

Your rights

You can find out more about your rights on our data protection page and this includes details of your rights about automated decisions, such as the ranking of Housing Applications, and how to complain to the Information Commissioner. 

If you are a Tower Hamlets employee or pensioner, you can pay you rent by arrangement with payroll or personnel section direct from your salary or pension.