Allegations about Persons in Positions of Trust – privacy notice

Working together to safeguard children 2018 statutory guidance requires the Council as a local authority to:

1. Have designated a particular officer, or team of officers (either as part of local multi-agency arrangements or otherwise), to be involved in the management and oversight of allegations against people in positions of trust who work or volunteer with children.
2. Put arrangements in place to ensure that any allegations about those who work with children are passed to the designated officer, or team of officers, without delay.

Portsmouth Safeguarding Children’s Board (PSCB) procedure require that if an adult who is in a position of trust has:

• behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child;
• possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child
• behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children;

Then the allegation must be reported to the Council’s Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

This privacy notice tells you about how Portsmouth City Council and the Council’s LADO collect and use personal information in respect of allegations made about people in positions of trust who work or volunteer with children.

Portsmouth City Council is the Data Controller (Registration Number Z5578313) with responsibility for the personal data processed by the Portsmouth LADO and in connection with the Council’s LADO function.

For details of how Portsmouth City Council uses personal information, view the data protection privacy notice page.

The Council’s LADO collects information about:

• People in positions of trust who work or volunteer with children who are brought to the attention of the LADO
• Children and their families and their personal welfare and safeguarding circumstances
• Organisations who engage people in positions of trust (e.g. as employees, volunteers or contractors)

The LADO collects personal information about people in positions of trust and children to enable the LADO to fulfil their statutory functions effectively. This may include the following personal and special category information:

• workers’ and volunteer’s personal information (such as name, date of birth, address, job/volunteer role and details of the allegation being made against them)
• employers’ personal information (such as email, address, telephone numbers)
• children’s personal information (such as name, date of birth, address and details of any safeguarding concerns), including personal information about the children of people in positions of trust.

The Council collects personal information in connection with people in positions of trust in order to perform its statutory duties in support of children’s safeguarding and welfare as set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018.

The Council uses personal information to ensure allegations about people in positions of trust are investigated thoroughly and to advise organisations who engage people in positions of trust on actions in order to enable them to safeguard the children who use their services and/or are in their care.

The Council’s LADO will record and pass on personal information and details of allegations about people in positions of trust and children to:

• persons and bodies in Portsmouth who also have a role in ensuring children’s safeguarding and welfare, including the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
• LADOs in other local authorities to enable them to fulfil their respective statutory duties with regard to people in positions of trust who may work or volunteer with children in another local authority areas
• employers and organisations who engage people in positions of trust to advise on and discuss potential courses of action to safeguard the children to whom the employer or organisation has a duty of care.

Actions may include, but are not limited to, notification by the employer/organisation to professional organisations such as the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), the General Teaching Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and regulatory bodies such as Ofsted, the Charity Commission and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

The LADO may also notify professional organisations and other bodies of allegations and concerns where people in positions of trust are self-employed or where an employer or volunteer organisation has failed to take appropriate action to safeguard children. The LADO may also contact the individual directly where they are self-employed and in a position of trust.

The LADO uses personal information to monitor and oversee the progress and outcomes of any allegations and will use personal information about people in positions of trust who are subject to an allegation and about children in order to hold a LADO strategy meeting with relevant Council officers, police and other agencies as well as employers and representatives from organisations who engage volunteers where a coordinated and/or collective response is required.

LADO strategy meetings are minuted and minutes from these meetings are stored securely and only shared on a strict need to know basis and where this is lawful.

The LADO will maintain a record of the allegation, actions taken and advised and any outcomes.

The information provided to the LADO is held within a secure storage system to which only authorised Children’s Social Care Senior staff are allowed access.

The City Council takes its data security responsibilities seriously and has policies and procedures in place to ensure the personal data held is:

• prevented from being accidentally or deliberately compromised;
• accessed, altered, disclosed or deleted only by those authorised to do so;
• accurate and complete in relation to why we are processing it;
• continually accessible and usable with daily backups; and
• protected by levels of security appropriate to the risks presented by our processing.

Personal information collected by the LADO is subject to the City Council’s records management policies and procedures and will be kept in line with the Council’s records retention schedule.

For details of the Council’s records retention schedule, view the corporate retention schedule.

To comply with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) directive 2015, the Council is required to retain all records that may be relevant to the inquiry until further notice.

The Council considers personal information concerning allegations about people in positions of trust is likely to be relevant to the IICSA and intends to retain this information in accordance with the notice of retention/non‐destruction of documents relating to the Inquiry.

Under data protection legislation, individuals have the right to request access to information about them that we hold. To make a request for personal information, contact:

Access to Records Co-ordinator
Children’s Social Care
Civic Offices
Guildhall Square
Portsmouth
PO1 2EP

Please note that under the GDPR, there is a right to erasure but the right to erasure does not provide an absolute ‘right to be forgotten’. Where the data being processed is for the purpose of ‘performing a task in the public interest or for the Council’s official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law’ (GDPR Article 6(1) (e)’, this right does not automatically apply.

To request the removal of personal data, and for any data protection concerns, contact:

Data Protection Officer
Civic Offices
Guildhall Square
Portsmouth

The LADO collects and shares personal information only where this is lawful, ensuring that we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) requirements for processing through:

Article 6(1)(e) – the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law;

Article 9(2) (g) – Necessary for reasons of substantial public interest on the basis of Union or Member State law which is proportionate to the aim pursued and which contains appropriate safeguarding measures; and Sch.1, Pt.2, 1 – Substantial public interest conditions, for processing under the DPA 2018.

These articles under the GDPR and the DPA 2018 are supported by the following specific legislation:

• Sections 11 of the Children Act 2004;
• Chapter 2, section 5 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018).

Depending on the individual circumstances of each situation, the LADO may have to share information with other organisations to fulfil other duties and powers and to support the work we do together to safeguard children.

The LADO will inform the police if a crime is suspected and/or children’s social care if a child is considered to be at risk.

For further information about how the Council handles personal information, and about rights to personal data, please see the Council’s Data Protection Privacy Notice.

For any queries or concerns, to request details of our privacy policy and how we collect and use personal information, please contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or telephone 023 9282 2251

You can also seek advice or raise concerns with the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (if you prefer to use a national rate number).

This privacy notice was last updated on 22 August 2018.