The service processes personal information in order to administer and manage the compliments, comments and complaints the Council receive from customers either directly or jointly with partners and commissioned private and third sector providers. This includes:

• enabling us to carry out investigations into your representation
• providing a response and agreeing appropriate actions
• learning from the experience to inform change in policy and/or process

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

• service user data for example name and contact details (in all cases)
• details of other family members for example name and contact details (where relevant to the complaint)
• financial details (where relevant to the complaint)
• date of birth (where relevant to the complaint)
• national insurance number (where relevant to the complaint)
• legal status – copy of Power of Attorney (POA) papers or deputyship (where relevant to the complaint)

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:

• physical or mental health details (where relevant to the complaint)
• racial or ethnic origin (where relevant to the complaint)
• offences (including alleged offences) (where relevant to the complaint)

The legal bases for processing this personal information are:

Local Authorities are required to have a published complaints procedure to enable members of the public who are in receipt of any service to complain should they feel their needs are not being met. Therefore the legal bases for the processing are:

• necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
• necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest or for official functions

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 complaint. These include but are not limited to:

• Council employees who need to do so to administer and resolve your complaint.
• other departments within the Council
• Commercial Services and service providers
• care providers.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
• Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
• Information Commissioner's Office
• partners of Worcestershire County Council where they may hold data relevant to your complaint
• MPs and Elected Members

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 records relating to a complaint is 6 years after the complaint has been closed.  However, there are also a range of other retention periods affecting different types of information and service needs and these range from 1 year to 75 years depending on the type of information and service. 

More information about our retention periods can be found in our summary Disposal Schedule (Excel file).

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. More information on how to Make a Data Protection Request

You may be entitled to rectification, restriction, objection, and erasure of your personal information depending on the service and legal basis.

Contact Paul Appleyard, Complaints Manager, by email pappleyard@worcestershire.gov.uk to exercise these Information Rights or call Consumer Relations on 01905 844096.

See our overall Privacy Notice for further contact details and if you have a complaint about your information rights.

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This Notice was last updated on 6 November 2018.