Best Start Family Hubs Privacy Notice

What our service does

Best Start Family Hubs are local centres where families can find help, support, and activities from pregnancy onwards. Whether you need advice on your child's development, parenting support, health services, childcare information, or help during challenging times, Family Hubs connect you to the right support in your community.

Who is the Data controller?

Oxfordshire County Council is the Data Controller for the data we collect about you as an individual.

You may contact the council’s Data Protection Officer as follows:

Information Services
Oxfordshire County Council
County Hall
New Road
Oxford
OX1 1ND

Oxfordshire County Council’s Data Protection Officer is available to contact dataprotectionofficer@oxfordshire.gov.uk or by telephone 01865 792422.

What information does Oxfordshire County Council collect?

Oxfordshire County Council will collect personal data about you. This information will include:

To provide this service, we will collect and use some or all of the personal
information below:

For parents/carers:

• name,
• date of birth,
• contact details (email address, full postal address & telephone number(s)),
• ethnicity,
• language,
• physical and mental health.

For children:

• name,
• date of birth,
• gender,
• ethnicity,
• language,
• Who has parental responsibility for this child
• School
• SEND

Other:

• Communication preferences
• Referral source
• Service usage
• Attendance Management – This is the summary of attendance and will be
  made clear in the membership process.
• We get most of this information from you and from what we learn about you through your use of our services, but we may also get some information about you from other council departments, early-year settings, or partner agencies.

Oxfordshire County Council may also collect special data such as:

• physical or mental health details
• racial or ethnic origin
• religion
• gender
• sexual orientation

Why does Oxfordshire County Council process personal data?

Oxfordshire County Council processes your data under Article 6 of the UK-GDPR,adhering to the principles outlined in Article 5, which include lawful, fair, and transparent processing, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, and accountability.

The lawful basis for processing your data in accordance with legislation is.

Consent

Oxfordshire County Council processes your personal data based on your explicit consent. This means that you have given clear permission for us to process your  ata for one or more specific purposes. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, and we will stop processing your data unless we have another lawful
basis to do so.

Legal obligations

Oxfordshire County Council processes your personal data to comply with our legal obligations. This means that we are required by law to process certain data. For example, we may need to process your data to comply with tax laws, employment laws, or other regulatory requirements.

Public task

Oxfordshire County Council processes your personal data to deliver statutory services under the Children Act 2004, Children and Families Act 2014, and related regulations. This includes processing necessary for us to carry out our functions as a public authority. For example, we may process your data to provide public services
or to carry out our statutory duties.

Substantial public interest: for processing special category data under Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018 under the following conditions:

• Statutory and government purposes
• Equality of opportunity or treatment
• Support for individuals with a particular disability or medical condition.

Oxfordshire County Council can also process special data under Article 9 of the UKGDPR.The legal basis for processing your special data in accordance with legislation is:

• Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest based on
  applicable laws. (DPA 2018 schedule 1, part 2, para 18 &19.)

These legal basis above are underpinned by acts of legislation that dictate what actions can and should be taken by local authorities, including:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• Childrens Act 1989
• Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000
• Adoption and Children Act 2002
• The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011
• Childcare Act 2006
• Education Act 2011
• Department for Education Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities on Services
• and activities to improve Young Peoples Well-being 2012
• Early Education and Childcare Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities July
• 2018 and subsequent amendments
• Early Years Foundation Stage Framework
• Healthy Child Programme 0-19, Department of Health 2009 and subsequent updated guidance
• ‘Troubled Families’ programme
• Information Sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to
• Children, young people, parents, and carers 2018
• Family Hub Guidance 2022
• Good practice in Information sharing in Foundation Years 2013

Who we share your personal data with

Oxfordshire County Council may share relevant personal data with various entities to fulfil our obligations and provide services effectively. We will not share your personal data unless it is legally necessary or is essential to carry out our stated purposes.

We may share your personal data with:

• Other departments within the council
• Other Local Authorities
• Health and social care providers e.g., Hospitals, A&E, GP’s
• Family members/Guardians
• Members of the public where safeguarding/child protection concerns are raised
• Police, rehabilitation services or youth offending services
• Education providers e.g., Schools, Academies, Early Years Providers, Special School Providers
• Further Education and Higher Education Colleges
• Legal representatives
• Employers
• Central Government Agencies
• Department of Education (DfE)
• Department of Works & Pensions (DWP)
• Commissioned Partners
• Voluntary sector providers and private sector providers

How do we protect your personal data

At Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), we prioritise the security of your personal data. We employ a range of technical measures such as encryption and access controls to safeguard your data from unauthorised access. Additionally, our organisational measures include regular training for all employees to ensure they understand their responsibilities in protecting your data. Our physical security measures, such as secure facilities and secure disposal methods, further ensure that your data is always protected.

Where we use any AI-based tools to help with admin functions, they do not make decisions or process your data in a way that is not compatible with legislation.

How long do we keep your data for

Information provided to us to deliver the Best Start Family Hubs will hold your data according to the Families, Children and Learning retention schedule. We will hold your data for no longer than required for the purposes described. Following that, it will be securely deleted or anonymised if it is still required for ongoing statistical and
trend analysis purposes. 

Once the data is no longer needed, it will be securely deleted to ensure your privacy is protected.

Your rights

Under data legislation (The UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018), you have certain data subject rights to:

• be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
• withdraw your consent if we are relying on your consent to process your data.
• access the personal information the council holds about you, by making a data subject request to the council, with valid identification and where necessary authority for children or other persons.
• rectification, to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• erasure, to delete your personal data unless there is a legal obligation to process your personal information.
• restrict processing, to reduce the information processed about you or prevent certain processing in future.
• data portability, to have your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form when asked.
• object, to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes, or any automated decision-making or profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human
  intervention.

You can also complete the online complaints form on our website.

You also have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office which is the UK regulatory authority for data protection issues:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

www.ico.org.uk

0303 123 1113.