Privacy Policy

Our privacy promise contains important information about The Private Care Company; who we are and how and why we collect, use, share and store personal information about you. This policy is about Your rights in relation to your personal information and how, in the event that you have a concern or complaint, you can contact us and other relevant organisations.

You may also be interested in our policy: Data Protection Policy – Employees.

Introduction

We are The Private Care Company, a privately owned and run home care company that provides domiciliary home care services in Brighton and Hove. So that we can provide high quality care and support services to you we need to collect and use certain personal information.

Personal information means any information which causes someone to be identified, it does not include information where an identity has been removed (anonymous data).

As the ‘controller’ of personal information, we are responsible for how that data is managed. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies in the United Kingdom and across the European Union, sets out our obligations to you and your rights in respect of how we manage your personal information.

As the ‘controller’ of your personal information, we will ensure that the personal information we hold about you is:

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
• Accurate and kept up to date
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
• Kept securely

If you have any questions about this privacy promise or would like further explanation as to how your personal information is managed then please contact us (see HOW TO CONTACT US below or by clicking here). Please note when we refer to:

A ‘public body‘ we mean any organisation in the United Kingdom which delivers, commissions or reviews a public service and includes (but is not limited to) the Ombudsman, local authorities, councils, unitary authorities, clinical commissioning groups, health and social care trusts, the National Health Service as well as their arm’s length bodies and regulators.

A ‘social or health care professional‘ we mean any person who provides direct services, acts as consultant or is involved in the commission of your healthcare or social care services, including (but not limited to) your general practitioner (GP), dental staff, pharmacists, nurses and health visitors, clinical psychologists, dieticians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, hospital staff, social workers and other care and support related professionals.

The personal information we collect and use

Here we outline how we collect and use personal information in relation to people who enquire about and use our services.

Information collected by us

When you enquire about our care and support services through our website, phone, email, post, face to face or social media, and during the course of providing care and support services to you we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us:

• Your name, home address, date of birth and contact details (including your telephone number, email address) and emergency contacts (i.e. name, relationship and home and telephone numbers)
• Your allergies and any medical, physical or mental conditions and in particular your care needs
• Your likes, dislikes and lifestyle preferences (including your religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, racial or ethnic origin, politics, genetics, health, sex life, marital status and sexuality trade union membership or biometrics (so far as they relate to providing you with suitable care)
• Direct debit details or other payment information (if you pay for some or all of our services using one of these methods)
• Your feedback and contributions to questionnaires and surveys about the service we offer
• Your complaints, compliments or concerns about the service we provide
• Any accidents and incidents or near misses you may have been involved in whist on our premises or whilst our employees are delivering a regulated service to you – this may include details of injuries and treatment you may have received

When using our website, we collect standard internet log information (commonly known as cookies), including:

• IP address
• Details of the pages you visit
• General details about the type of computer or device that you are using

This is statistical information only which we collect in order to find out the numbers of visitors to our site and the pages they have visited. This information collected in such a way that it is not used to identify individuals. Where we do collect personal information on the website, this will be made obvious to you through the relevant pages. See our full COOKIE POLICY below for more information.

Please be aware that our website may provide you with links to other websites. If you follow a link to any other website please note they have their own privacy promises. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy and security practices of such third-party websites and your use as such is at your own risk.

Information collected from other sources

We work closely with third parties such as social and healthcare professionals and public bodies. We therefore also obtain personal information about you from other sources such as:

• Your allergies and any medical, physical or mental conditions, test results and in particular your care and support needs, from any appropriate external social or health care professionals (including your GP)
• Your name, home address, date of birth, contact details, needs assessments and financial assessments from any appropriate external social or health care professionals (including any relevant public body regardless of whether you are publicly funded)
• Your likes, dislikes and lifestyle preferences (including your religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, racial or ethnic origin, politics, genetics, health, sex life, marital status and sexuality trade union membership or biometrics (so far as they relate to providing you with suitable care)) from your family, friends and any other person you have nominated as your representative
• Your legal representative (for example Lasting Power of Attorney), if applicable

How we use your personal information

We use your personal information to:

• Prepare, review and update a suitable care plan, describing the nature and level of care and support services which you have requested we supply to you
• To communicate with you, your representatives and any appropriate external social or health care professionals about your individual needs and personalise the service delivered to you
• Make reasonable adjustments, when required, to meet your individual needs and to ensure we have suitable facilities to ensure your safety
• Invoice you for the care and support services in accordance with our terms and conditions
• Carry out quality assurance procedures, review our service and improve our client experience (please note that feedback can also be provided anonymously)
• Send information about our services which we believe you may be interested in. You may unsubscribe from this at any time
• Notify you about changes to our services which are relevant to you
• Monitor how effective our services are and to make sure that the services we provide meet your needs
• Improve your experience of our website and to ensure that the content is presented in the most effective way

Who we share your personal information with

We share your medical information with appropriate external social or health care professionals (including your GP and pharmacist) and any individuals you have nominated as your representative as and when required. This data sharing enables us to establish the type of care and support you need. It also allows us to design the right care package to suit your individual circumstances, including if (in future) you decide to receive care from an alternative provider.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if requested or required. This includes information required by public bodies to evidence our compliance with the applicable regulatory framework. We are also required to share personal information with external social or health care professionals, including public bodies and local safeguarding groups (in some circumstances) to ensure your safety.

We will share minimal and relevant information within The Private Care Company in order to provide safe and effective services to you.

We will not share, sell or trade your personal information with any other third party without your consent.

In order to deliver our service to you we rely on third parties to provide specialist support to us. To provide this support they will have access to, or a duty of care over your personal information. These providers are:

• IT and Telecoms Support companies – to ensure the safe, secure and resilient operation of our IT infrastructure including computers, servers, phones and mobile devices
• Software support companies – to provide specialist support and resolve issues with the software that we run, for example the systems we use to store and manage your client records
• Marketing systems providers – to organise marketing communications and for the delivery and analysis of email communications

Data archiving companies – responsible for the secure storage and destruction of records.
These providers are under a written contract to ensure the same level of privacy and security that we promise to you.

Whether information has to be provided by you, and if so why

The provision of your medical, physical or mental condition is necessary to enable us to create a care plan and to provide you with suitable care and support services. Without this information, we will not be able to assess your care needs or provide any care services to you.

The provision of your name, home address is required so that we can arrange a care worker to attend your home to deliver the services and so that we can invoice you for the fees.

How long your personal information will be kept

• We will hold the personal information kept within your electronic client file for the length of your contract plus three years
• We will hold the personal information kept within your hard copy client files for three years from the date of the last entry
• We will hold the personal information kept within our feedback procedure for one year so that we can identify trends and patterns in our service
• We will hold financial records and transactions for seven years in line with our legal requirements

Reasons we can collect and use your personal information

We rely on the following grounds within the GDPR:

• Article 6(1)(a) – processing is conducted with your consent to process personal data for specified purposes
• Article 6(1)(b) – processing is necessary for the performance of our contracts to provide individuals with care and support services
• Article 6(1)(c) – processing is necessary for us to demonstrate compliance with our regulatory framework and the law
• Article 6(1)(f) – to process your personal data in pursuit of legitimate interests, which include;
  • Marketing purposes – the privacy impact on you is expected to be minimal. Marketing will be specific to services we believe are of interest to you using information from enquiries we receive from you, you can unsubscribe at any time
  • Corporate due diligence and financial modelling, service development and innovation – the privacy impact on you is expected to be minimal. We will process your data internally to ensure our business is stable, trusted and innovating to provide the best possible service to you

GDPR recognises that additional care is required when processing special category (sensitive) data such as your health. We process this under the following grounds within GDPR;

• Article 9(2)(h) – processing is necessary for the provision of social care or the management of social care systems and services

International transfers

All your personal data is stored and processed on systems that are within the European Economic Area (EEA) and offer the same level of legal protection and rights over your data.

In certain situations, we transfer your personal information to the following countries which are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

This is done in order to provide our employee with your name, address, contact details and care needs information which they require to deliver a safe service. This information is only shared once you have accepted the employee as part of the service we provide.

This international transfer is under Article 49(1)(b) – the transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between the data subject and the controller.

Such countries do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. Any transfer of your personal information will be subject to appropriate or suitable relevant safeguards that are designed to help safeguard your privacy rights and give you remedies in the unlikely event of a misuse of your personal information.

If you would like further information please contact us (see HOW TO CONTACT US below or by clicking here).

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

• Fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your use personal information
• Access to your personal information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Promise is already designed to address
• Require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
• Require the erasure (i.e. deletion) of personal information concerning you, in certain situations. Please note that if you ask us to delete any of your personal information which we believe is necessary for us to comply with our contractual or legal obligations, we may no longer be able to provide care and support services to you
• Receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
• Object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing
• Object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
• Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information
• Otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances
• Claim compensation for damages caused by our breach of any data protection laws

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Our cookie notice

The Private Care Company collects information when you visit our website through the use of cookie technology. A cookie is a piece of programming contained in a very small text file that is placed in your internet browser or elsewhere on your hard drive. You can control your acceptance of cookies by modifying your internet browser preferences. You also have the ability to accept all cookies to be notified when a cookie is set or to reject all cookies. Please note that if you choose to block all cookies, including any essential cookies, you may not be able to access all or part of the website and may be unable to engage or use those services or activities that require the placement of cookies. We use cookies in order to differentiate you from other users of our website and to help us compile stats about the usage on our website. There may also be occasions when we will use tracking technologies such as web beacons to collect information about your visit to our website. These web beacons are electronic images embedded into the web content or emails and are usually not visible to users. This tracking technology enables us to track pages and the content accessed and viewed by users  to our websites. It also helps us to provide  you with a positive experience when browsing and it also helps us to refine our content. Information about cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org

How to contact us

You can contact us by:

• Email – admin@theprivatecarecompany.co.uk
• Post – Quality Assurance Officer, The Private Care Company, Second and Third Floor Offices, 115a Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2AF
• Telephone – 01273 774 951

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

1. Contact us using the details above – making clear that you wish to exercise one of your privacy rights
2. Let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. your name and address)
3. Let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill)
4. Let us know the information to which your request relates, including any account or reference numbers, if you have them

If you would like to unsubscribe from any marketing emails you can respond to that email with the words ‘unsubscribe’ It may take up to 14 days for this to take place.

Keeping your personal information secure

The confidentiality and security of your information is of paramount importance to us. We have appropriate organisational and technical security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

The GDPR also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at:

Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow SK9 5AF
+44 (0)303 123 1113
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Data Protection Officer
Quality Assurance Officer, The Private Care Company, Second and Third Floor Offices, 115a Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2AF. Telephone: 01273 774 951.

Changes to this privacy promise
This privacy promise was first published on 25th May 2018.

We may change this privacy promise from time to time, when changes are significant we will draw your attention to this via email and on our website.

Do you need extra help?
If you would like this privacy promise in another format (for example, in audio, large print or braille) please contact us

Terms & Conditions

What’s in these terms?

These terms tell you the rules for using our website www.theprivatecarecompany.co.uk (our site).

Who we are and how to contact us

www.theprivatecarecompany.co.uk is a site operated by The Private Care Company Limited (“We”).

We are registered in England and Wales under company number 07148974 and have our registered office at Second and Third Floor Offices, 115a Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, England BN3 2AF.

We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

We are a limited company.

To contact us, please visit the contact page on our site.

By using our site you accept these terms

By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

There are other terms that may apply to you

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

• Our Privacy Policy. See further under How we may use your personal information.
• Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site (contained in our Privacy Policy).

We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time. These terms were most recently updated in April 2020.

We may make changes to our site

We may update and change our site from time to time to reflect changes to our users’ needs and our business priorities.

We may suspend or withdraw our site

Our site is made available free of charge.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

We may transfer this agreement to someone else

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.

Our site is only for users in the UK

Our site is directed to people residing in the United Kingdom. We do not represent that content available on or through our site is appropriate for use or available in other locations.

How you may use material on our site

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged. You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Do not rely on information on this site

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date.

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

Whether you are a consumer or a business user:

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

If you are a business user

• We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our site or any content on it.
• We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
  • use of, or inability to use, our site; or
  • use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.
• In particular, we will not be liable for:
  • loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
  • business interruption;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

If you are a consumer user

Please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

How we may use your personal information

We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Uploading content to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, you may not use the feature in any way:

• that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.
• that is unlawful or fraudulent or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect.
• to bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.
• to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).
• to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Rules about linking to our site

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.

Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

Which country’s laws apply to any disputes?

If you are a consumer, please note that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

If you are a business, these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Our trade mark is registered

The Private Care Company logo is a UK registered trade mark of The Private Care Company Limited with registration number UK00002586739. You are not permitted to use it without our approval, unless it is part of material you are using as permitted under How you may use material on our site above.