Caretree is subject to and registered under the Data Protection Act 2018.

Your confidentiality and privacy is very important to us, and we take every step to ensure your information is safeguarded.

Our staff are trained to respect confidentiality and sign a confidentiality agreement when joining Caretree. Your information will not be discussed with another Service User, Friend, Neighbour or Acquaintance, although there may be situations where information needs to be shared to ensure your safety or the safety of others . Wherever possible this will be done with your knowledge and consent.

The following sections describe the data we will hold about you, how we use, share and store it, and what your rights are.

Information About You

We will hold personal confidential information about you which will be used to support delivery of high quality care. It is important for us to have a complete picture of you and your medical history as this information assists staff involved in your care to deliver care safely and effectively and to produce appropriate care plans to meet your needs. It also helps us to communicate effectively and accurately with other healthcare professionals.

This information we hold includes:

• Basic details, such as name, address, date of birth, next of kin.
• Medical history including allergies, health conditions and disabilities.
• Information from people who care for you and know you well, such as health professionals and relatives.
• Information is collected in a number of ways, via healthcare professionals (e.g. GP, District Nurse), referral details from Social Services or directly given by you or close relatives.
• It may also include personal sensitive information such as sexuality, race, your religion or beliefs.
• Details and records of the care we have provided, including, depending on the level of care in your care plan, notes and reports about your health, medication, continence and nutrition.
• Invoice and payment records for non-Social Service customers

We use this information:

• To help inform decisions that we make about your care.
• To ensure that the activities in your care plan are safe and effective.
• To work effectively with other organisations/professionals who are involved in your care.
• To ensure our services can meet future needs.
• To review care provided to ensure it is of the highest standard possible.
• To train our staff.
• To ensure the staff have the information they need to perform safe care.

Storage And Retention

The data we hold on you is held in four ways;

• In the file kept at your house. This is for records and data that is required by the carers providing your care.
• In a paper file kept in our office. This is for records that we need access to so we can deliver safe care.
• On our secure electronic management system. We hold records on your contact details, scheduling, invoicing and payments and notes about your care or any concerns. This allows it to be accessed by all appropriate staff. Only information required by the staff member is accessible to them. For example, carers are only able to see care plans and schedule information, and only for the clients they are due to see.
• Our Archiving. This is where we keep old records and paper files that are not needed immediately.
• When you stop using our service, we will archive all paper records we hold on you and store it securely for six years. The data will then be shredded.

Electronic data will be archived and maintained for six years, or ten years if any health and safety issues have occurred that could result in a future claim against our public liability insurance. After this period, the data will then be deleted.

Sharing of Information

We communicate changes to your needs and relevant information about your care to our staff via our secure electronic management system and via email. We also write a weekly ‘newsletter’ which provides updates and reminders about changes to our Service Users. This information is kept strictly within Caretree.

We will share your personal information outside of Caretree with;

• any persons that have Power of Attorney.
• your next of kin and/or family members if you agree to do so at assessment or any time thereafter. You have the right to remove this consent at any point.

We may disclose appropriate data to other healthcare professionals for the express purpose of delivering safe personalised care. For example, we may disclose information about pressure sores to a District Nurse, your medication history to a GP or medical history to Ambulance staff in an emergency.

If your care is provisioned by Social Services, we are contracted to provide them access to all of the data we hold about you.

As part of the inspection process by Social Services (if you were referred by them) and our governing body, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), your data and records may be checked to ensure that our care package complies with legislation and their quality rules. We may also disclose your contact details to the CQC for the purposes of allowing them to contact you for quality surveys.

If we believe you are at risk of harm, we may disclose relevant information to appropriate bodies, such as Oxfordshire Safeguarding or in extreme cases, the police

We will never disclose any of your information to non-healthcare professionals or healthcare professionals not involved in your care without your express permission.

If you elect to pay for your services by Direct Debit, your bank account, sort code, account name and the address that invoices are sent to will be stored by our Direct Debit Bureau Company purely for the purposes of collecting fees.

Clients that are referred by Social Services have their telephone number and care visits recorded on an external system for the purposes of recording call times and calculating charges. This data is also available to Social Services.

National Data Opt-Out; We do not share any data for planning or research purposes. This includes any data for which the national data opt-out would apply.

Your Rights

You have the right to request a copy of all the data we hold on you. Please contact us if you wish to discuss this further.

If you feel any of the data we hold about you is incorrect, you have the right for this data to be amended.

You also have the right to remove your consent at any point. Of course, this may prevent us providing further care to you.

We will hold personal confidential information about you which will be used to support delivery of high quality care.

• Your personal and contact details including your name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers, emails
• Particulars of your employment including your job title, salary, benefits
• Financial information including your bank details, NI No, tax statements, payslips
• Particulars of your right to work in the UK
• Particulars of your qualifications and skills including references, licences, certificates and training
• Details of any criminal convictions to ensure that your colleagues and clients are safe.
• Details of your car taxation, MoT and insurance for the purposes of ensuring legal compliance while driving for business purposes.
• Emergency contact information
• Records of working hours (planned and actual), annual leave, sickness, training, mileage, bonuses and tax
• Particulars of your performance including tasks, attendance
• Sensitive information including protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 for Equal Opportunities Monitoring and Compliance
• IT usage information including email addresses, log-ins, passwords
• Particulars of processes e.g. disciplinary, grievance, performance management processes undertaken with you
• Copies of letters and communications between us and you.
• Any conditions (e.g. disabilities) that have an impact on how you do your job and any reports from any professional individuals or bodies to aid us implement adjustments to your working practice.
• Details of any criminal convictions to ensure that your colleagues and clients are safe.
• Details of any performance or disciplinary meetings
• Sickness Records during your employment

While working for Caretree, you will write notes on clients and the tasks you have performed. For the avoidance of doubt, these notes will not be considered to contain any personal data about you.

Your data will be used to assign you work, provide you with hours of work, pay you, monitor your performance, write to you with important documents, check your skills, qualifications and experience, appraise your performance and safeguard your health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

This is done on the basis of your consent and the legitimate interests to safeguard your health, safety and welfare and the health, safety and welfare of your colleagues, clients and third parties in the workplace. Your data is also processed in accordance with a contractual requirement between us and you. The failure to provide us with the data or to withdraw your consent may impact upon your recruitment, employment or tasks, duties and responsibilities with your role and/or assignment. You should discuss the further impact of this with your manager.

Retention

If you have not commenced employment, we will keep all records for a period of 1 year. We will keep the names of all applicants that don’t start, and reasons for non-start, for a period of 6 years, to aid us track repeat applicants.

We keep all data and records during your employment and for a period thereafter of 6 years. This period has been determined for the protection of the organisation in the event any professional negligence or breach of contract claims in the event we use representation to defend any claims. In the case of Finance data, this is to comply with HMRC regulations.

Data during your employment will be kept in a locked folder in the office or on our secure management system. Following your departure from the Company, your file will be moved to a secure archive facility. Your name and dates of employment may be kept on our management system for 10 years after your leaving date allowing us to respond to reference requests from future employers.

Sharing of Data with External Bodies

We will not disclose your personal data to any organisation or body with the exception of those listed below.

As part of our inspection process by our governing body, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), your data and records may be checked to ensure that our care package complies with legislation and their quality rules. We may also disclose your contact details to the CQC and to OCC for the purposes of allowing them to contact you for quality surveys.

In the event of suspected wrongdoing, we may disclose relevant information to appropriate bodies, such as Oxfordshire Safeguarding or in extreme cases, the police.

Our payroll is processed by a third party accountant, who have full access to your pay and tax history. They also have access to data required to process pay, pension and tax.

Your name and schedules will be uploaded to a third party Electronic Time Management Service (ETMS) provider to allow us to track your entry and exit times to certain clients.

Your name, national insurance number, working patterns, sick days, qualifications, ethnicity and other employment details are uploaded to the Skills for Care National Minimum DataSet for Social Care (NMDS-SC). This data is used by Skills for Care to monitor workforce patterns across the social care industry. Skills for Care commit to anonymise data for all datasets.

We may need to discuss your employment with our legal advisors and will disclose appropriate details of you employment depending on the advice required.

We may, from time to time, be required by law to disclose details of your employment, pay or taxation to certain official organisations and we will comply with these requests when asked to do so.

Your rights

You have the right to;

• be informed of fair processing information with a view to transparency of data.
• access the information we hold on you by contacting your manager..
• request the information we hold is rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• erasure in the form of deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing. We have the right to refuse to erase data where this is necessary in order to comply with a legal obligation or defence of a potential legal claim. You will be advised of the grounds of our refusal should any such request be refused.
• withdraw your consent at any time. Note, this may affect your employment.
• lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority such as the Information Commissioner’s Office or any other of our regulators or accreditors that may regulate or provide accreditations to us from time to time.