Privacy

Sandwell Metropolitan Council
Privacy Notice - Public Health Intelligence Team

March 2018

About us

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council is a "Data Controller" of the personal data you provide to us. Our contact details are:

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Council House
Freeth Street
Oldbury
B69 3DB
Tel: 0121 569 2200

As a Public Authority we do not have a representative in any other member states of the EU.
The Data Protection Officer can be contacted on DP_Officer@sandwell.gov.uk

How data about you will be used

As a local authority we have a statutory obligation to improve and protect the health and social care of the population we serve. To fulfil this obligation, we use data to research, produce and publish intelligence for the public and professionals. This research allows us to understand the needs of the population.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012; National Health Service Act 2006; and the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 allows for the collection of data to support the following functions which are fulfilled at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council:

  • Production of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
  • Production of the Director of Public Health Annual report
  • Production of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy
  • Monitoring and analysing births and deaths that have been registered
  • Monitoring and analysing hospital activity data
  • Monitoring and analysing public health risks data
  • Monitoring and analysing the National Child Measurement Programme data
  • Monitoring, analysing and submitting the NHS Health Check Programme data
  • Monitoring and analysing infection control data
  • Monitoring and analysing lifestyle behaviours and perceptions (including data collected from surveys)
  • Monitoring and analysing disease prevalence
  • Monitoring and analysing school performance data
  • Priority setting for the council
  • Commissioning of services
  • Evaluation of public health services
  • Evaluation of migrant movement
  • Evaluation of third party services
  • To undertake health equality and equity analysis, particularly for vulnerable groups

    • What personal data do we have?

    The personal information we receive:

  • Address
  • NHS number
  • Gender
  • Date of birth
  • Postcodes
  • Ethnicity
  • Children height and weight measurements
  • Smoking status
  • Information from the birth and death certificates
  • Crime and incidents
  • Use of hospital services and diagnosis
  • Disability status

    • Majority of the data held within the Public Health Intelligence team is pseudonymised or anonymised before it is received. Anonymised data is processed by removing the individual identification element. Pseudonymisation is a process of replacing personal identifiable information by one or more artificial identifiers.

    Who do we share personal data with?

    Data received via a survey may on some occasions be shared with the directorate that has commissioned it.

    Relevant data received from G4S is shared securely with school nursing and health visiting services to ensure that those on the G4S database are supported appropriately by the two service provisions in Sandwell.

    Personal data received from the Office for National Statistics, NHS Digital, national and local NHS bodies, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Midlands and Lancashire

    Commissioning Support Unit and local stop smoking services is not shared within the council or externally to any third party.

    There may be instances when we are legally obliged to share within the council or to a third party. If this occurs then we will only share the minimum data required in accordance to the data protections rules and regulations.

    Where do we receive personal data from?

    We receive data from the following organisations and directorates:

    Office for National Statistics, NHS Digital, national and local NHS bodies and Sandwell & West Birmingham Clinical Commissioning Group, Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, G4S and local stop smoking services.

    Data is also received internally from various directorates or provided by you through surveys.

    How do we store personal data?

    Personal level data is stored within a secured network within the council in line with the relevant information governance framework.

    It is only accessible to a limited number of employees within the Public Health directorate.

    We do not keep any hard copies of personal information.

    We do not view personal information outside of the professional working premises.

    The data is not linked to any other dataset other than those set in the sharing agreements.

    Retention periods vary depending on the data and the usages.

    Data collected via an online survey is stored on servers managed by Survey Monkey or Snap Surveys; and therefore subjected to their GDPR compliance and privacy policies. Further information is available via the following links:

    Survey Monkey
    Snap Surveys

    Your Rights

    You are entitled to have access to the personal data concerning you that is being processed by this data controller.

    To request whether personal data concerning you is being processed, and if so to obtain access to that data, or to exercise any of your other rights regarding the processing of this data, please contact the Data Protection Officer whose details are above.

    You are entitled to have personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.

    You have the right to request the erasure of the information you have consented to the processing of for this purpose.

    You have a right to request the restriction of this processing of your personal data where the data is inaccurate, the processing is unlawful but you do not want it to be deleted, it is due to be deleted but you require it to be kept for the exercise of a legal claim or where you have objected to the processing and the verification of whether the controllers legitimate grounds override those objections is still pending.

    As the processing of your data for this purpose is based on your consent, you can ask that the processing ceases at any time by withdrawing your consent. The standard of care/service you receive will not be affected if you choose to withdraw your consent for your data to be used / processed. To do this, please either email your request to DP_Officer@sandwell.gov.uk, call 0121 569 3057 to register this over the phone, or put your request in writing to the following address: The Data Protection Officer, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, Freeth Street, Oldbury, B69 3DB.

    The United Kingdom supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner's Office who can be contacted at www.ico.org.uk, by email at casework@ico.org.uk, Tel 03031231113 or at Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

    You are not obliged to give any personal information for this purpose and the withholding of such will only affect the performance of this particular function and shall not affect any other interactions with this data controller.

    Intention to transfer the data to another country

    With exception of the data collected via Survey Monkey, your personal data is not transferred outside of England.

    Survey Monkey is located in the United States and accordingly respondent data is transferred to the United States. Survey Monkey participates in and has certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. More information is available here.

    Existence and details of any automated processing

    There is no automated processing of personal data.

    Further information

    For further information please contact: Research Sandwell at the above address or email: Research_Sandwell@sandwell.gov.uk or Tel: 0121 569 3059