Telecare service – privacy notice

Portsmouth City Council complies with the Data Protection Act and the GDPR and is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) as a Data Controller.

This Privacy Notice explains how personal information is going to be used, what for, who it will be shared with and why.

The council will collect and use your personal information in order to provide you with telecare services under powers given to us by the Care Act 2014 and to comply with our obligations under Contract with you to provide telecare equipment and services. We collect information before, during and after your assessment in order to provide you with a service that is suitable to your needs.

The information we gather during your assessment is securely recorded and stored on Jontek, our electronic assisted living platform for monitoring telecare. This includes information about your current concerns, any risks identified and the type of Telecare equipment that can be used to help you to manage these risks.

Portsmouth City Council’s Telecare Service is delivered by Southampton City Council. This means that both parties are Joint Data Controllers for the information we hold about you as part of the Telecare service. Our Telecare equipment is connected to Southampton City Council’s monitoring centre through your telephone line. The Monitoring Centre access your information on our electronic assisted living platform to help them to assess an emergency or problem and to manage it as quickly and effectively as possible, including all relevant information about you that has been recorded as part of your Telecare Assessment.

Portsmouth City Council will only collect the personal information needed to provide the Telecare service to you. We will collect your name, contact details, physical and mental health conditions, financial details for payments, social care information, information about your day to day activities, contact details of your GP, formal and informal domiciliary care arrangements, living circumstances, property type and ownership. We will also collect names and contact details for agreed Responders, or a point of contact for assessment or installation visits.

Portsmouth City Council will use the information about you to:

• Give instructions to partners and contracted maintenance services to tell them what Telecare equipment to install, maintain or remove from your home.
• Provide information to Southampton City Council’s Monitoring Centre, who receives alarm calls from Telecare equipment. The Monitoring Centre needs information about you and your responders and/or next of kin to help them to assess an emergency or problem and to manage it as quickly and effectively as possible.
• Discuss your assessment with relevant Health and Social Care staff involved in your care. They will use this information to supplement care packages, support plans that are already in place or that could be provided to you in the future.

Portsmouth City Council will keep your personal information for the duration you are a Telecare customer. When you cancel your service with us your data will be archived and the data is then held securely for a further six years. We are required to keep this information for this period of time in accordance with Section 5 of the Limitation Act.

Portsmouth City Council will provide access to your information to:

• Southampton City Council’s Monitoring Centre, our partner organisation responsible for providing a response service to alarm calls raised by Telecare equipment.
• Our Contracted Service Provider, Jontek, who provide our assisted living software and carry out maintenance to our call monitoring systems.
• Portsmouth City Council staff who install, maintain and remove Telecare equipment
• Portsmouth City Council staff who are directly involved in your case.
• Portsmouth City Council Adult Social Care Services Staff who are directly involved in your case.
• The police, fire brigade, ambulance and other relevant agencies as required in an emergency.
• Named interested parties who we may contact to discuss your Telecare service or to arrange visits to your property for assessments, reviews and engineer visits.
• Southampton City Council employed Telecare Responders who the Monitoring Centre will contact if an alarm call is raised by your Telecare equipment.
• Housing associations, private landlords, scheme managers and care home managers who will be contacted if permissions are needed to install Telecare equipment in your home.
• Community alarm providers, who will be contacted if notice is needed to disconnect equipment in your property, so that Telecare equipment can be installed.
• Providers of care e.g. carers, personal assistants and support workers from private agencies who are directly involved in your case.

Under the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the right to request access to all of the personal information that we hold about you. Under certain circumstances, you also have rights to:

• Request correction of your personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Object to processing of your personal data
• Request restriction of processing your personal data.
• Request the transfer of your personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact:

Data Protection Officer
Portsmouth City Council
Civic Offices,
Portsmouth,
PO1 2AL

Email: DataProtection@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Telephone: 023 9282 2251

Portsmouth City Council’s general Data Protection privacy notice contains further information about how the Council collects and uses personal information.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice, or if you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, please contact the City Council’s Data Protection Officer, as per the contact details above.