Adoption and Fostering Privacy Notice

Find out how Stirling Council uses personal data by checking the Council’s website at the following address:

https://www.stirling.gov.uk/privacy-statement/

Our website contains a Register of Data Processing which lists all the different ways
in which the Council uses personal data.

This Privacy Notice provides more information about just one of those processes.

The Council has a Data Protection Officer to make sure it is complying with data protection laws.

They can be contacted at:

Data Protection Officer
Stirling Council
Old Viewforth
14-20 Pitt Terrace
Stirling
FK8 2ET

Email: dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk
Telephone: 01786 404040

We gather personal information in order to assess suitability of applicants to be approved by the Agency to be foster carers or prospective adoptive parents and to match applicants with suitable children.

The data includes information about service users.

Personal data processed

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Marital status
• Occupation
• national identifiers such as NHS number, National Insurance number etc.
• information about your family and relationships
• details about your lifestyle and social circumstances
• financial details
• employment and education details

Information relating to suitability to either be a foster carer or being matched long term (fostering), as an adopter (adoption), then matched to a named child, or as a special guardian assessed to care for a specific children.

Special category data processed

• Health (physical or mental)
• Racial or ethnic origin

As well as data relating to criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences.

UK GDPR Article 6(1) (e) - Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. As set out under the requirements of the Children’s (Scotland) Act 1995, the Children and Young

Person’s (Scotland) Act 2014, Adoption and Children

(Scotland) Act 2007, Looked After Children (Scotland)

Regulations 2009, Guidance on Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009, National Standards – Family Placement, The Children (Scotland) Act, 1995.

UK GDPR Article 9 (2) (b) – employments, social security or social protection, associated condition of the Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 1, para 1. 

We get most of this information from you, but we may also get some of this data from:

• central Government agencies
• other local authorities
• health and social care providers
• police and probation services
• members of the public (referrer)
• commissioned partners
• family members

All data is stored electronically in the care management system.

We will keep your information for 35 years from closure for both successful and unsuccessful applications, as well as child care - not accommodated.  Child care accommodated will be held for 100 years from closure for looked after children.

For fostering and adoption, we are required to keep your information for a minimum of 100 years after the closure date of adoption.

Sometimes we may need to share your information, but we will only do so where it is necessary or required by law.

We will only share the minimum information for each circumstance.

We may sometimes need to share some of your information with:

• health service providers including NHS agencies (GPs, hospitals, ambulance, health visitor, mental health services)
• education providers
• care providers, e.g. day care, domiciliary, residential
• Government agencies (e.g. Department of Health, Department of Work and Pensions)
• support groups for people with disabilities
• local government
• police
• substance misuse agencies
• advocacy services
• employers
• fostering and adoption agencies and providers

We may also use Data Processors to support these activities, for example by providing the systems we need to or delivering services on our behalf.

You have the following rights under data protection laws. If you have a request under any of these rights, you can make a subject access request.

• The right of access – You have the right to request information we hold about you. This is known as a subject access request and is free of charge. We must respond within one month, although this can be extended to three months if the information is complex.
  
  
• The right to rectification - You are entitled to have your information rectified if it is factually inaccurate or incomplete. We must respond to your request within one month. If we decide to take no action, we will tell you why and let you know about your right of complaint to the UK Information Commissioner
  
  
• The right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to delete your information or stop using it. It will not always be possible for us to comply with your request, for example, if we have a legal obligation to keep the information. If we decide to take no action, we will tell you why and let you know about your right of complaint to the UK Information Commissioner.
  
  
• The right to restrict processing - You have the right to restrict how your data is processed in certain circumstances, for example, if the information is not accurate. If a restriction is applied, we can retain just enough information to ensure that the restriction is respected in future. We must tell you if we decide to lift a restriction on processing.
  
  
• The right to data portability – You have the right to object to processing, if we are processing your personal data with your consent, and it is held in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable form, you have a right to ask us to transmit it to another data controller so they can use it. This right does not apply if we process your personal data as part of our public task.
  
  
• The right to object - You can object to your information being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  
  
• You have rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling - to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to complain about or comment on how we have processed your personal information, you should email dataprotection@stirling.gov.uk

If you are still unhappy with how the council handled your complaint, you can contact the UK Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113

You can find further information on the Information Commissioners Office website.