Quality Protects Children (children’s homes and school) is committed to protecting the privacy of customers and contacts. We are registered with the Information Commissioner – ICO:00210000828 and we comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679, which supersedes the Data Protection Act 1998.
Data protection is an integral part of keeping young people’s, as well as company information, safe. QPC takes data security very seriously and is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679, which apply from 25 May 2018, and supersede the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). It expanded the rights of individuals to control how their personal data is collected and processed and places a range of new obligations on us to be more accountable for data protection. QPC has now completed the Cyber Essentials certification to be compliant with these regulations:
Lawrence House School Privacy Notice: privacy-notice-school-pupils
How do we receive personal information?
We only collect personal information when you specifically provide it to us. This may happen when you contact QPC, for example, using the Contact Us form on our website or by telephone or fax.
What do we do with your personal information?
We are legally obliged by the Data Protection Act 1998 to make sure that we only use personal information for the purpose for which it was requested and to make sure it is kept securely.
We take care to make sure that the way we use your data is secure – and we are constantly improving our systems and processes to make sure that personal data is handled efficiently and safely.
If you have contacted us, we will use your email address to send you relevant information, for example, social workers about young people and commissioners about vacancies. Each email will give you the option to stop receiving information from QPC. Personal information sent by email will be communicated securely, either by document password protection or secure email service.
If you have requested information to be sent to you, we will only use the email address and postal address provided to communicate with you about this information in the future.
We need to hold personal information about young people and those involved in their care on our computer system and in paper records to help us with their care, health, and educational needs. The company Safeguarding Lead is responsible for its accuracy and safe-keeping. Those making placements with QPC are required to keep their child’s records up to date by informing us of any change of circumstances or contact details of key people.
Care, therapy and educational staff have access to your child’s records to enable them to do their jobs. From time to time information may be shared with others involved in your child’s care, if it is necessary. Anyone with access to your child’s records is properly trained in confidentiality issues and is governed by a legal duty to keep their details secure, accurate and up to date. All information about young people is held securely and appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss.
To ensure young people’s privacy, we will not disclose information over the telephone unless we are sure that we are talking to you – the social worker, parent/carer, IRO etc. Information will not be disclosed to anyone unless it is relevant to the agreed care plan or care planning. Information sharing should be discussed at the referral stage to clarify who has parental responsibility and who information can be shared with.
Young people have a right to see their own records, and this is part of the care provided to each young person. If information is not to be shared this must be agreed through a proper process and put in writing to QPC. There is, of course, no fee payable for young people seeing their own records.
Will we share your personal information with anyone else?
Generally, QPC will not share personal information with any other organisation unless specifically involved in the care of a young person. In some circumstances we may be required by law to release a young person’s details to statutory or other official bodies, for example, to keep a child safe. In other circumstances, a parent/carer, social worker or a young person may be required to give written consent before information is released – such as reports for solicitors etc.
Keeping your information up-to-date
If you would like at any time to make changes to the way that we communicate to you by post, telephone or email, please contact us:
Phone: 0151 949 5690 (open 9.00am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday)
Email: headoffice@qpconline.co.uk
Changes made will be actioned within five working days, although due to the way that we select and use data it may take up to one calendar month for the changes to become effective.
Use of cookies
A cookie is a small text file on your internet browser and hard drive that uniquely identifies your browser. We only use cookies on our website for technical reasons and not to collect users’ personal information.
Security
QPC is committed to protecting the security of your data. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide in computer servers with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. Our website is hosted using industry-approved, secure operating systems. As well as physical security, firewalls and intrusion detection systems are in place to provide a quick response if an attack takes place.
Our information
QPC has supplied the information on this website for individuals and organisations seeking to find out more about the work of QPC.
While we make every effort to make sure the information is accurate, neither the editors nor QPC can be held responsible for any actions arising from the use of information gained from this website.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may amend this policy from time to time. We will state clearly on our website any substantial changes to the way in which we use your personal information.
Our specific privacy policy for how we use young people’s information can be found here: YP Privacy Notice.
Our specific privacy policy for how we use employees information can be found here: Employee’s Privacy Notice.
May 2018