Children's services privacy notice

Purpose for processing your information

Westminster provides three Family Hubs, which aim to improve access to preventative services (both universal and targeted) for children and their parents or carers. The services provided from the hubs aim to support families to understand and make effective changes that ultimately improve their health and wellbeing. The Family Hubs in Westminster are as follows:

• South Westminster: Bessborough Family Hub, 1 Bessborough Street, London, SW1V 2JD,
• North-East Westminster: Church Street Family Hub, 12-18 Salisbury Street, London, NW8 8DE
• North-West Westminster: Queens Park Family Hub, 88 Bravington Road, London, W9 3AL (including Bayswater Children’s Centre)

Find more information about the Family Hub offer.

If you and your family might benefit from the support available, the Family Hub will gather relevant information from you to help ensure you receive the right support at the right time.

We collect the following information

If you require further information or advice from the Family Hub you can complete the form ‘What Can We Help You With?’ form providing your name and contact details which will result in a practitioner from the Family Hub contacting you. Parents can get a copy of the form from any of the Family Hubs, or from any of the partner organisations working as part of the Family Hub.

If, after talking with you, we feel you would benefit from further support and you agree, you will be asked to complete a more detailed form sharing your family’s personal details; this would include full names of everyone in your household, dates of birth, gender, full address and contact details (telephone and email), your ethnicity, housing and employment status, any disabilities or additional health needs, contact details of your GP, Health Visitor and any other service supporting your family, relationship status and languages spoken. This form will also ask you to describe your family’s needs and the support that may assist. If you would like help with completing this form please contact the Family Hub and a Family Navigator will arrange an appointment to support you with this.

If you do not wish to complete this form or do not wish your information to be shared with any other service then you can still receive a service without doing so but you may have to repeat your information if you require support in the future.

We may also anonymise some personal data you provide to us to ensure that you cannot be identified and use this data to allow the council to effectively target and plan the provision of services.  For example, we may use statistics/numbers relating to ethnicity of families to measure reach of services to ensure we are reaching the whole community.

In some cases, the Council may use your information for another purpose if it has a legal duty to do so or to provide statistical returns to Government departments.

We may also share personal data if there is a risk of serious harm or threat to life.

To find out more about how we use your data, please consult the children's services web-page.

How we collect your information

We collect your information when you request support from the Family Hub, via paper forms (these are also available for completion online):

• ‘What Can We Help You With’ form where you provide your name and contact details to enable somebody from the Family Hub to contact you
• ‘About My Family’ registration form which gathers detailed information about you and your family to ensure you receive the right service for your family

We may also gather information about your family through telephone contact with you or face to face in a meeting with you. If another service is contacting the Family Hub on your behalf then they may share your details with us by secure email.

When your family receive support from one of the Family Hub services, where appropriate we will produce with you a Family Plan. This plan will detail the support that you need and who will help you with your needs. This plan is shared with you but will also be shared  with all of the services that are supporting you and your family, unless you tell us not to. It will be stored securely as part of your records.

If you already receive support from a service and it is felt you would benefit from receiving support from further services your support worker may talk to you about the Early Help panel which takes place at the Family Hub. Your information could be shared with a number of services attending the Early Help panel meeting in order to get coordinated support for you and your family, unless you tell us not to.

The Family Hub also receives information from other services, these are:

• information of a new birth when you have agreed for Health Visiting to share these details
• information from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) regarding families who may be eligible for the 2 year old childcare offer
• If appropriate your family may be contacted by letter offering further information of the services that are available at the Family Hub.
• Family Navigators based in the Family Hubs receive information from North West London Integrated Care System / NHS North West London about children aged under 5 whose families may benefit from additional advice and support while the children are in the early years. Where such children and families are not already receiving advice and support, the Family Navigators will contact parents or carers to provide information about services available. Any parent or carer who does not wish to receive such support can decline the offer and no additional information recording or sharing will take place.

Who the information is shared with

Your information will be held on our secure database system and will be shared with the services that make up the Integrated Leadership team at the Family Hub, unless you tell us not to. These include:

• Westminster Children’s Services including Early Help, the Children’s Centres and Social Work teams
• Church Street Family Hub, Portman Early Childhood Centre Nursery School and Children’s Centre (North East Westminster Family Hub)
• Queens Park Early Years Federation
• Central and North West London Foundation Trust (School Nursing Service)
• Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (Health Visiting Service)
• Westminster Youth Hubs
• Voluntary and Community Sector organisations

Additionally, for families with children offered support following notification to Family Navigators by the North West London Integrated Care System, information about services provided will be shared with NHS North West London Integrated Care System, unless parents/carers ask us not to.

Any details recorded on our database will only be accessed by those working as part of the Family Hub for the purposes of supporting your family and monitoring the effectiveness of services provided.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your information for as long as is required by law and to provide you with the necessary services in line with our retention schedule. In general information related to the Family Hub providing a service to the family, recorded data (family’s personal details and contact information) will be retained for up to six years from point of the last contact with the family concerned.

Each participating organisation working as part of the Family Hub have their own data retention policy and will ensure information is held in line with their own retention policies and legal requirements.

Your rights and access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.

The UK General Data Protection Regulation also gives you additional rights that refer to how the council holds and uses your information.

Consequently, under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• object to and restrict further processing of your data; however, this may affect service delivery to you
• request to have your data deleted where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing and provided that there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it
• request your data to be rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• have your data transferred or copied should you move to another local authority area
• not be subject to automated decision-making including profiling

Information about how you can submit a subject access request can be found here.

If you have any concerns

Please contact us if you would like to know more about the information we hold about you and how we use it by contacting the manager of the relevant Family Hub.

If you have any questions regarding your Data Protection rights, such as accessing your personal information, etc. or if you have a concern over the handling of your information. You can email the Council’s Information Management Team at [email protected]

You have a right to complain to us if you think we have not complied with our obligation for handling your personal information.

If you are not satisfied with the council’s response you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Changes in your circumstances

You should notify us immediately if there are any changes in your circumstances and personal details so we can maintain an accurate and up to date record of your information.