Children's Social Care and Early Help Services
Who are we and what do we do
Children's Social Care and Early Help Services is part of Gateshead Council. We are based at the Civic Centre, Gateshead. We provide the following services:
advice, support and services for children, young people and families through both statutory (social care) and non-statutory (Early Help) services
We support children, young people and their families from early pregnancy up until the young person reaches the age of 19 years. We offer support for some children and young people who have a disability, up to the age of 25 years.
This privacy notice provides specific information about how we processes your personal data. It is an addition to the information contained in our Corporate Privacy notice.
The Children's Social Care and Early Help encompasses the following Teams and Services:
Assessment and Intervention
ASYE Academy
Cared For Children
Children's Homes
Early Help and Targeted Family Support
Fostering Services and Kinship Care
Integrated Referral Team
Safeguarding and Care Planning
Social Workers In Schools
Supporting Children and Families
Trauma Informed & Innovation
The type of information collected about you
We collect personal information to understand your needs and provide services. Information may include:
name
address
email address
telephone number
date of birth
education records
employment details
family information
financial details for purposes of receiving or making payments
housing records
lifestyle, social and personal circumstances
national identifiers such as NHS number and National Insurance (NI) number
proof of identity
services you receive
visual images, personal appearance and behaviour
This list is not exhaustive. The information required may depend upon your family circumstances.
We collect the following special category data:
criminal offences (including alleged offences), including information from the Youth Justice Service
criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
gender and sexual orientation
physical or mental health details
racial or ethnic origin
religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
SEN - Special Education Needs
How we collect information about you
We collect information about you from various sources to ensure that we meet your needs, including:
Face-to-face contact
online referral form (for public or professional use)
by post
secure email
secure health information exchange
telephone contact
We can source additional specialist information securely from partner agencies. We will record details of the sources of such extra information.
Why we need your information
Our purpose for collecting your personal data is to enable us to:
assess your needs and identify the most appropriate services available
The lawful basis for our processing is:
consent
legal obligation to which the data controller is subject
task in the Public Interest or in exercise of official authority
Our lawful basis for processing of sensitive personal data is:
employment, social security and social protection (if authorised by law)
reasons of substantial public interest (with a basis in law)
health or social care (with a basis in law)
The legislation the service is obliged to comply with includes:
Adoption and Children Act 2002 and associated regulations
Childcare Act 2006
Children Act 1989 and 2004
Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000
Children and Social Work Act 2017
Children and Families Act 2014
Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013
Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006
Education Acts 1944 and 1996
Education and Adoption Act 2016
Education and Inspections Act 2006
Education and Skills Act 2008
Equality Act 2010
School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2018
Transport Act 1985
Young People's Act 2008
Who your information can be shared with
Our Corporate Privacy notice explains information sharing the Council carries out. This sharing fulfils statutory obligations, legal requirements and service delivery. Children's Services and Early Help can share your information with:
AdoptNE
Cafcass
Commissioning Services, to better understand service, care and accommodation needs of families
Department for Education (DfE)
Department for Works and Pensions (DWP)
Disclosure Barring Service
education providers
foster carers, including independent fostering agencies
Gateshead Safeguarding Children Partnership
health agencies, including the Child Protection Information System (CP-IS) and Great North Care Record's Health Information Exchange
Home Office
home to school transport providers
law enforcement agencies including the Police, Youth Justice Service and Probation Service
Ofsted
other Gateshead Council services, such as Housing, Domestic Abuse Team, Benefits and Adult Social Care
other local authorities
UK courts
voluntary organisations providing services
There are other times where we may need to share your information lawfully to individuals as well as organisations. These include:
for the prevention or detection of crime
where a court order requires us to share information
where there is a serious risk of harm to you or to others
where there are concerns for the welfare of a child
Our lawful basis for this sharing is the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller and your consent is not required.
If we wish to share your information with other council services or third parties for purposes outside of those listed above we will ask your permission.
With regards to the Supporting Families Programme:
If you are eligible for the Supporting Families Programme (known locally as 'Families Gateshead') we may share personal information for the programme's national evaluation.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has commissioned the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to cross check data sets of other Government departments. This includes the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), DWP and DfE. Further information on the Supporting Families programme can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/supporting-families
How long we will keep your information
We keep your information for as long as we need to provide services to you. We may also need to keep your information in accordance with legal or other obligations. Where we have no need to keep your data it will be securely destroyed. We keep a Record of Processing Activity (a requirement under the GDPR). This sets out the specific retention periods applicable in different circumstances. For more information please contact 0191 433 3000
Please see the table below in relation to retention periods within Children's Services and Early Help:
Business area | Client specific | Retention period (case closure) |
Early help | CAF | 25th birthday of the person we are working with |
Early help | Children and families | 25th birthday of the person we are working with |
Early help | Youth justice | 25th birthday of the person we are working with |
Early help | Domestic abuse | 25th birthday of the person we are working with |
Children's Social Care | Looked after children | 75th birthday. If the child dies before 18, 15 years from date of death |
Children's Social Care | Foster carer | 10 years from approval ending |
Children's Social Care | Foster carer - not approved | 3 years from refusal or withdrawal |
Children's Social Care | Adoption - where an adoption order is made | 100 years from date of Adoption Order |
Children's Social Care | Adoption - where an adoption order is not made | Adoption agencies keep a children's and prospective adopter's case records for such period as considers appropriate. Where an adoption order is not made and the agency decides to close the child's case record, it should transfer the information from this record to the looked after case record. In which case see Looked After Children. If the child has never been looked after, the agency should destroy the records when no further action is necessary. An example of when this may be appropriate is if the possibility of adoption of a baby was discussed before the child's birth, but the baby remained with the birth parents. |
Children's Social Care | Children's homes | 75th birthday. If the child dies before 18, 15 years from date of death |
Children's Social Care | Child protection | 35 years after case closure |
Children's Social Care | Child in need | 35 years after case closure |
Children's Social Care | Serious case review | 25th birthday |
Where your information is held
We hold personal information in secure electronic systems on Gateshead council servers.
How you can update your information
Our delivery of efficient services depends on the accuracy of your information.
Please inform us of any changes to the following:
email address
personal circumstances
postal address
any of the other information we hold
Please telephone (0191) 433 3380
Your information rights
Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice.
Marketing and e-newsletters
Please see our email marketing privacy notice.
Business intelligence, profiling and automated-decision making
Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice.
Protecting your information
Please see the relevant section of our Corporate privacy notice.
Data Protection Officer
Data Protection Officer
Civic Centre
Regent Street
Gateshead
NE8 1HH
DPOcouncil@gateshead.gov.uk
0191 433 3000
Information Commissioner's Office
The Information Commissioner is the UK's independent body for upholding information rights. Visit their website to find out more about your rights under Data Protection law, and what to expect from us.
For privacy practices or data protection rights concerns, contact the Information Commissioner's Office:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745
casework@ico.org.uk