Privacy Policy

Safeside Supported Living Services, Jhumat House, 160 London Road, Barking, IG11 8BB. Telephone 020 3989 7290. Email info@safesideservices.co.uk.

If you have any question about how we handle your information, or want to exercise any of the rights below, contact us using those details and ask for the person responsible for data protection.

What we collect depends on how you deal with us.

If you make an enquiry or request a care assessment through this website, by phone or by email, we collect: your name and contact details, your relationship to the person needing care, their first name and age range if you choose to give them, the postcode where care is needed, the type of support you are looking for, how urgent it is, and anything else you choose to tell us in a free text field. We deliberately do not ask for diagnoses, medication lists or health records at enquiry stage.

If we go on to provide care, we collect the information needed to plan and deliver it safely: health and mobility needs, medication where support is agreed, risk assessments, care plans, visit records, next of kin and GP details, and where relevant details of the professionals involved in your care. Health information is "special category" data and we treat it with additional care, described in section 4.

If you apply for a job, we collect the details on the application form: your name and contact details, the role, your CV, your care experience and qualifications, whether you have the right to work in the UK, your DBS status, driving licence and vehicle access, and your availability. Later in the process we carry out right to work checks, obtain references and, for successful applicants, an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check, as the law requires for care roles.

When you visit this website, we set one essential cookie to remember your cookie choice. If you accept analytics cookies we collect anonymised usage information as described in our Cookie Policy.

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use. Ours are:

• Responding to your enquiry and arranging an assessment: our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us, and taking steps at your request before entering into a care agreement.
• Providing care: performance of our contract with you or the person we support, and our legal and regulatory obligations as a CQC registered provider.
• Health information: the provision of health or social care (Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR), which is the specific lawful basis for care providers handling health data. Where consent is more appropriate, for example sharing an update with a relative, we ask for it and you can withdraw it.
• Recruitment: taking steps at your request before entering an employment contract, and our legal obligations to check right to work and suitability for care roles.
• Marketing updates: only with your consent, which you give by ticking the optional box on our forms and can withdraw at any time.
• Analytics cookies: your consent, given through the cookie banner.

Care records are among the most sensitive information we hold. We store them securely, restrict access to the staff who need it to support you, train our team in confidentiality, and follow the Data Security and Protection Toolkit standards that apply to health and social care providers. We do not use health information for marketing.

With the consent of the person we support, we may share appropriate updates with named family members. Where someone lacks capacity to consent, we act in their best interests in line with the Mental Capacity Act and involve those close to them.

We never sell your information. We share it only where necessary and only with:

• Health and care professionals involved in your care, such as your GP, district nurses, social workers or hospital discharge teams, to provide safe, joined up care.
• Regulators and public bodies where we are legally required to, including the Care Quality Commission and local authority safeguarding teams.
• Service providers who help us run the service, for example secure form storage, email delivery, and IT support. They act only on our instructions and are bound by contracts protecting your data.
• Referees, the Disclosure and Barring Service and the Home Office for recruitment checks, as required by law for care roles.
• The emergency services where there is an immediate risk to someone's safety.

We do not transfer personal information outside the United Kingdom unless a service provider processes it elsewhere under an appropriate legal safeguard such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

• Enquiries that do not lead to care: 12 months from your last contact, then deleted.
• Care records: 8 years after care ends, in line with the Records Management Code of Practice for health and social care, unless the law requires longer.
• Unsuccessful job applications: 6 months after the decision, then deleted, unless you ask us to keep your details for future roles.
• Employee records: for the duration of employment and 6 years afterwards, with DBS information handled under the DBS code of practice.
• Cookie preference: 6 months.

You can ask us to delete your information sooner where we have no legal duty to keep it.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you (a subject access request)
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• ask us to delete information, where we have no legal reason to keep it
• ask us to restrict or object to how we use your information
• withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis we rely on
• ask for your information in a portable, machine readable format where it was provided by you and processed by automated means

To exercise any right, contact us using the details in section 1. We will respond within one month and will not charge you, unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive. We may need to confirm your identity first.

Enquiries submitted through this website travel over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) and are stored in a secure system with access limited by role. Care records are held in secure systems, and staff receive confidentiality and information governance training. Paper records, where used, are kept locked away. We review our security regularly and would notify you and the Information Commissioner's Office of any breach that put your rights at risk, as the law requires.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last changed. Where a change is significant we will let people we support know directly.