Family Hubs privacy notice

Read our privacy notice for information on how we collect, store and process your data.

The data controller for your data 

Brighton & Hove City Council is the data controller for purposes of the Data Protection Act (2018) and The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 ("GDPR") and is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number Z5840053. 

Brighton & Hove City Council are committed to protecting your personal information. As a data controller, we have a responsibility to make sure you know why and how your personal information is being collected in accordance with relevant data protection law. 

Why we’re collecting your data 

The council is working to ensure that families that would like support receive coordinated help when it is most needed, and that this help and support is delivered using a whole family approach through Family Hubs.

Family Hubs work with families and children aged 0-19 (25 with SEND).

We are collecting your data for the following purposes: 

  • monitoring use of Family Hubs in the city. This includes numbers of referrals, attendance at groups and numbers of families accessing family support. 
  • collating thematic reasons for providing support within specific geographical areas to allow us to plan a service based on community need 
  •  to improve the health, development and well-being of babies, young children and adolescents in Brighton & Hove
  • to improve the health and wellbeing of parents and carers in Brighton and Hove 

What is the lawful basis for collecting your data 

We have a lawful basis for collecting this data as it is considered necessary to enable us to carry out our tasks, functions, duties or powers or to perform a task carried out in the public interest, improving the well-being of young children. 

We have a lawful basis for processing this data under Performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Data Protection Act 2018 schedule 3, part 3 para 8; Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance July 2018).

Our legal basis for collecting this data is legal obligation under the Children Act 1989, Children & Young Persons Act 2008, and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.  It is also considered necessary to enable us to carry out our tasks, functions, duties or powers.

Special category data is being processed under the lawful basis of Substantial Public Interest (DPA 2018 schedule 1, part 2, para 18 &19.

The data we may collect 

We will collect personal data or special category data. The type of information collected from you is as follows: 

Personal data 

The personal data we may collect from you includes:

  • contact details: including name, address, email address, and telephone number. 
  • date of birth 
  • information about you and your family 
  • social and personal circumstances 
  • financial details 
  • housing information relating your council tenancy 

Special category data 

We may also collect special category (sensitive data) of personal data that may include: 

  • physical or mental health details 
  • racial or ethnic origin 
  • gender 
  • religion  
  • gender and sexual orientation 

Who we’ll share your data with 

Your data will be shared within Brighton & Hove City Council Department for Families, Children and Learning, including the Early Years and Performance Team. This is in order to monitor the use of the provision and inform decisions for service development. 

The council operates shared services with Surrey County Council and East Sussex County Council. We may share your information with one of these partners if necessary to provide these services.

Your data may be shared with Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust Healthy Child Programme.

Anonymised data will be shared with the Department for Education for monitoring purposes only. 

How long we’ll keep data for and why

We will hold your data according to the Families, Children and Learning retention schedule.

We will hold your data for no longer than required for the purposes described. Following that, it will be securely deleted or anonymised if it is still required for ongoing statistical and trend analysis purposes.

How we will store your data

Your information will be stored electronically on the Families, Children and Learning information management database – Eclipse. 

Examples of the security measures we use are:

  • training for our staff allows us to make them aware of how to handle information and how and when to report when something goes wrong 
  • Encryption meaning that information is hidden so that it cannot be read without special knowledge (such as a password). This is done with a secret code. The hidden information is said to then be ‘encrypted’
  • Pseudonymisation meaning that we’ll use a different name so we can hide parts of your personal information from view. This means that someone outside of the council could work on your information for us without ever knowing it was yours
  • Controlling access to systems and networks allows us to stop people who are not allowed to view your personal information from getting access to it. 
  • Regular testing of our technology and ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates (commonly called patches)

Transferring data outside the European Economic Area 

Your data will not be transferred outside the European Economic Area. 

Your rights 

Depending on the legal basis for processing your information you may have the right to:

  • a copy of data held about you, an explanation for its processing and who it has been shared with – this right applies to data processed under any lawful basis 
  • rectification (correction) of data which is demonstrably wrong – this right applies to data processed under any legal basis 
  • restrict processing – this right applies if it has been shown that there is no legal basis for processing your data, but you wish it to be retained 
  • object to processing – this right does not apply where the council is under a legal duty to process your data, but can be used where you dispute that there is a legal basis to process your data until the council can demonstrate what basis exists 
  • erasure – this applies where there is no longer a legal basis to retain you data 
  • portability of your data (having it moved to another organisation) – this right applies only where the legal basis was either consent or performance of a contract but data will usually be transferred to another local authority if a child in care moves to a new location
  • object to automated decision making – this right is applicable under all lawful bases for processing 

How to get advice or make a complaint 

Data Protection Officer 

If you have a concern about how we collect or use your personal data you can contact the Council’s Data Protection Officer.  

How to make a complaint 

We aim to resolve all complaints about how we handle personal information. You also have the right to make a complaint about data protection to the Information Commissioner's Office.  

Contact them by post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or phone 0303 1231 113. 

You can also make a complaint or find out more information on the Commissioner's Office website. 

If your complaint is not about data protection, find details on how to make a complaint about a council service.