The services process personal information either directly or jointly with partners and commissioned private and third sector providers. This includes:

• deliver services and support to you
• manage those services we provide to you
• help investigate any worries or complaints you have about your services
• keep track of spending on services
• check the quality of services
• dealing with financial assessments
• invoicing individuals, businesses, organisations and others
• following up unpaid invoices in accordance with our statutory duties and debt recovery procedures
• acting as the Court appointed deputy for individuals’ property and financial affairs. To act in their best interests and in accordance with any Court orders

The service processes personal information which is relevant to individual cases which may include, but is not limited to, the following personal data:

• contact details - name, address, email, telephone and alternative billing address
• finance details - bank account number and sort code
• supplier details - name, trading name, address, e-mail addresses for orders and remittances, bank details, VAT Registration Number, Company Registration Number, Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) Number, National Insurance Number, invoice details and payment details

We may also process some special category (sensitive) information, which is relevant to individual cases and may include some of the following but is not limited to:

• social care service provision information

The lawful bases for processing personal data are:

• necessary for a task in the public interest under our official authority under legislation including:
  • Care Act 2014
  • Mental Capacity Act 2005
  • Children Act 2002
  • Local Government Finance Act 1988
• necessary for compliance with a legal obligation including returns to the HMRC
• necessary for the legitimate interests of the controller

The lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data is:

• necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services

We may need to share the personal information you have given to us or we’ve collected about you with partner organisations where relevant to the individual and/or their care provision. These include but are not limited to:

• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
• Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• Cabinet Office and the National Fraud initiative (NFI)
• Construction Industry (CIS)
• employers, and previous employers regarding pensions
• financial institutions such as banks and building societies
• National Health Service (NHS) bodies including Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
• Benefits Tribunals
• courts and those involved in legal proceedings including solicitors and barristers
• deputies appointed by the Court of Protection and Attorneys appointed under Lasting Powers of Attorney
• Office of the Public Guardian
• police and other law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime
• APT (Automated Payment Transfer) for making BACS payments
• other local authorities
• other third party organisations such as Citizens Advice, care agencies, care home providers and other professional carers

Information will only ever be shared when it is strictly necessary to help us provide effective services and you may have the right to refuse. We will not pass it onto any other parties unless required to do so by law or in all reasonable circumstances the disclosure is fair and warranted for the purposes of processing or subject to a data protection exemption.

We have specific data sharing agreements in place with local agencies and sometimes the law requires that we may have to pass your details on to a third party, for example, to prevent crime.

The standard record retention for accounts receivable and payable records is 6 years from the end of the financial year to which they relate. 

However, there are also a range of other retention periods affecting different types of information and service needs depending on the type of information and service.  More information about our retention periods can be found in our summary Disposal Schedule.

Please note stated retention periods may be subject to any legal holds imposed under the Inquiries Act 2005 that may concern the information and override standard retention periods.

You are entitled to a copy, or a description, of the personal data we hold that relates to you, subject to lawful restrictions. Please go to our Make a Data Protection Request page to find out how to make a request.

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis. Please in the first instance contact FinancialQueries@worcestershire.gov.uk to exercise these Information Rights or call the main Worcestershire County Council contact telephone number of 01905 765765.

Please see our overarching Privacy Notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.