The services process personal information in order to provide a full range of fostering and kinship services either directly or jointly with partners and commissioned private and third sector providers. This includes:

• recruitment of prospective foster carers and kinship carers
• assessing prospective foster carers and kinship carers, connected others and private fostering arrangements
• providing foster families and kinship families for children
• supporting and training approved foster carers and kinship carers
• contact prospective and existing foster carers and kinship carers to share information or correspond with them about fostering and kinship service business delivery matters by post, e-mail, phone, SMS (texts)
• with consent, and opt out at any point, correspond with prospective and existing foster carers and kinship carers by post, e-mail, phone, SMS (texts) to share other information,  for example, about third party events or promotions that would be useful to them as prospective or approved foster carers or kinship carers

The service processes personal information which is relevant to individual cases. It is vital that individuals applying to be foster carers or kinship carers for Worcestershire County Council provide all the information required in order for the application to be processed. Information collected may include, but is not limited to, the following personal data:

• personal details (name, email, contacts, address, date of birth)
• personal reference numbers  (NHS Number, NI number)
• financial details
• family details
• employment details (include employment references)
• lifestyle and social circumstances information
• visual images, personal appearance and behaviour e.g. photographs
• case file information (include complaints)
• details of extended family members and support systems
• personal and work related references
• proof of citizenship/residency

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 (include from health records and assessment report and/or social care records)
• racial or ethnic origin
• offences (including alleged offences) criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
• religious or other beliefs of a similar nature

The legal bases for processing this personal information are:

Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation and associated regulations and statutory guidance. Significant are:

• Children Act 1989, Children Act 2004, 2006 and 2017
• Children’s Act – Fostering Services 2013
• Care Planning, placement and Care Review (England) Regulations 2010
• Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards 2011
• The Foster Carer Charter 2011 (Fostering Network)
• Human Rights Act 1998

Consent of the data subject.

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 service provision. These include but are not limited to:

• other Services within Worcestershire County Council
• individuals and agencies who are required to provide reference checks
• foreign embassies if living abroad for application checks
• courts
• individuals party to proceedings
• other statutory services according to your assessed need e.g. health and housing

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 Fostering & Kinship records is 75 years. However there are also a range of other retention periods affecting different types of information and service needs and these range from  6 years to 75 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. 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 DataProtection@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.

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page, This Notice was last updated on 29 January 2019.