Privacy notice - 0 to 5 Years’ Health Needs Assessment
Overview
This privacy notice covers the collection of personal data for the purpose of conducting a Health Needs Assessment for 0 to 5-year-olds in East Sussex. East Sussex County Council is the data controller and this privacy notice explains how your data will be used.
A Health Needs Assessment is a systematic approach to understanding the health and healthcare needs of a given population in an area. The assessment:
- involves a range of data collection methods to describe the health and wellbeing of a population
- includes unmet needs and inequalities in health and access to services
- is used to inform effective use of resources to improve outcomes (for example, as part of commissioning/planning services)
As part of this we will collect both:
- anonymised data - where no name is attached and it cannot be traced back to an individual
- pseudonymised data - where someone is given a fake name or identification number and those with specific access to the data can trace back whose data this is, but this is not to be shared outside of the immediate team involved in the Health Needs Assessment
Pseudonymised and anonymised data will be processed from interviews and workshops with parent/carers of 0 to 5-year-olds in East Sussex to understand:
- whether 0 to 5-year-olds’ needs are met well
- where there are gaps
- where things could be better
We will also collect personal names and contact details of parents who take part so that we can ask for their feedback on draft analysis and recommendations prior to publication.
Finally, we will collect anonymised special category data as part of an Equalities Impact Assessment, to ensure our services are designed to meet everyone’s needs.
East Sussex County Council takes data protection seriously. Please be assured that your information will be used appropriately in line with data protection legislation, will be stored securely and will not be processed unless the requirements for fair and lawful processing can be met.
What information is being used?
As part of this Health Needs Assessment we need to collect some personal data to ensure we have listened to the experiences and views of families in East Sussex. Personal data is information about you, such as your name or health information.
Parents/carers participating in an interview or workshop will be invited to share their name and contact details. This will enable us to stay in touch with you to gain your thoughts and feedback on our draft findings, and to let you know about the end report.
Interviews
Parents/carers taking part in an interview will be asked to fill in an online or paper-based form to agree to participate to ensure you understand what it means to take part. These will be kept securely.
Those taking part in an interview will also be asked for their interview to be audio recorded so that we can accurately record what you say. This audio recording will be transcribed to a written MS Word file within 10 working days of the interview, and during this process we will remove any personal information (such as names you might have mentioned) in the interview. The audio recording will then be permanently deleted.
The interview transcript will then have a pseudonym (fake name) which we can link back to you in case you want to stop us from using some or all of what you say in the report, which you can do up until 30 September 2026, at which point we will have committed data from the interviews to the themes in the report.
Workshops
Parents taking part in a workshop do not have to provide their contact details. At the workshop we will write down some notes about what people say but this will be anonymous and not linked to any personal information.
Equality monitoring
Participants will be invited to share anonymous equality monitoring information in a short anonymous survey, including age, sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disabilities. Supplying this information is voluntary, but would help us ensure we have reached families with a variety of lived experiences. The survey will not require participants to provide any personally identifiable data and we ask participants not to provide anything that could be identifiable to any individual via this activity.
How will your information be used?
Analysing data
The Public Health team will analyse anonymised transcripts from the interviews and the anonymised notes taken at workshops which will then form part of the overall needs assessment report. We will use direct quotes in reports but will take care to ensure that parents can’t be identified through deductive disclosure (by piecing different bits of information or stories together).
Feedback
Once we have analysed the data, we will then get in touch with parent/carers who have asked us to stay in touch about the Health Needs Assessment to give them the opportunity to feedback on our summary of findings, draft recommendations, and final draft of the report. This will help us shape the recommendations in the report, and you can then review how we have used your direct quotes and ask us to edit or remove them. You may be invited to give feedback in a variety of ways which are all voluntary. This could include written feedback, a further informal conversation, or by attending a workshop. Finally, we will get in touch to ask if you would like to stay involved in the co-production of children’s services in East Sussex.
Equality monitoring
The equality monitoring information remains anonymous. This data will be analysed to ensure we have reached families with a variety of lived experiences, and to carry out an Equalities Impact Assessment, which evaluates how well our services meet the needs of all 0 to 5-year-olds in East Sussex.
We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practice for our record keeping and regularly check and report on how we are doing. Your information is never sold for direct marketing purposes.
Our staff are trained to handle your information correctly and protect your confidentiality and privacy.
Your information is processed in the UK or in a country with an adequacy agreement with the UK.
No automated decision making is used.
What is the legal basis for processing your information?
Our lawful basis for processing this information is within tasks carried out in the public interest and comes from the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. It states that local authorities are responsible for joint strategic needs assessments for people in their area.
The survey and needs assessment contributes to the East Sussex Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).
We are also working within our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.
How long will your information be kept for?
We will retain your personal information (contact details and signed agreements) for 2 years from the end of the Health Needs Assessment.
We will retain anonymised data (transcripts of interviews and equality monitoring data) for 6 years from the end of the Health Needs Assessment.
Please see retention schedule for more information.
Sharing your information
The information you provide will be shared within the published needs assessment. This will be entirely anonymous data. No personal data will be included.
Personal details provided for us to stay in touch about the co-design of services for 0 to 5-year-olds will not be shared with anyone outside the East Sussex County Council Consultation and Public Health teams.
Any sharing of personal data is always done:
- on a case-by-case basis
- using the minimum personal data necessary
- with the appropriate security controls in place
- in line with legislation.
Information is only shared with those agencies and bodies who have a "need to know" or where you have consented to the sharing of your personal data to such persons.
We may use the information we hold about you to assist in the detection and prevention of crime or fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that inspect and manage public funds.
Your rights
Under data protection legislation, you have the right:
- to be informed why, where and how we use your information
- to ask for access to your information
- to ask for your information to be corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
- to ask for your information to be deleted or removed where there is no need for us to continue processing it
- to ask us to restrict the use of your information
- to ask us to copy or transfer your information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way, without impacting the quality of the information
- to object to how your information is used
- to challenge any decisions made without human intervention (automated decision making)
Please visit data subject rights for further details.
How to find out more or complain
Should you have any further queries on the uses of your information, please speak directly to our service:
Hannah Cowan, Research and Intelligence Specialist
East Sussex Public Health
Email: hannah.cowan@eastsussex.gov.uk
To complain about the use of your information, please contact our Customer Services Team or our Data Protection Officer.
Further information on making a complaint.
You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for further information or to make a complaint:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Phone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate)