Privacy notice - Appointee and Deputyship Team (ADT)
Overview
This Privacy notice covers people who receive services from the Appointee and Deputyship Team (ADT).
Your social work practitioner will have talked to you about their referral for you to receive services from ADT. When there is nobody else suitable to do so, ADT apply for authority to manage your finances.
When applying for authority, ADT will use your information to apply to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for Appointeeship and to apply to the Court of Protect for deputyship. When applying for deputyship ADT will also use the information on your East Sussex County Council (ESCC) record to contact three people to advise them of the application, this gives them the opportunity to object.
After ADT have authority, they will use your information to manage your finances including paying your bills, rent and care fees. ADT may need to share information including your name, date of birth and address to manage your accounts.
If you receive your Personal Allowance (the amount budgeted for you to spend) by prepaid card, ADT will share some information with the card company to open the account.
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 Adult Social Care, the Appointee & Deputyship Team (ADT) can access information held by East Sussex County Council to provide care and support services. Please also refer to the privacy notice for Adult Social Care for further details on how your information is used across the wider service.
Information We Hold
To provide ADT services, we will hold information about you including:
- your name, address, and date of birth
- your contact details
- financial information, such as benefits, pensions, savings, and other sources of income
- details of your expenditure, including bills, rent, care fees, and any debts
This information is used to create a budget, manage your money, and fulfil our responsibilities as your Appointee or Deputy.
Information About Family Members and Connected People
Where we hold information about your family members or other people connected to you (e.g. names or contact details), this information may be used to:
- contact them, when necessary, in relation to your financial affairs
- identify an appropriate person to act on your behalf after your death
- support genealogy searches where required
We will seek consent before sharing information about living relatives with genealogy companies.
If we cannot contact relatives, only information relating to the deceased person will be shared.
How will your information be used?
Your data is used to meet our obligations to manage your money as set out by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Appointeeship or Court of Protection Deputyship Court Order.
As part of our authority we must monitor your spending and keep financial records.
We will use your information to contact DWP to manage your benefits. We will also use your data to contact any company that you have an account with to manage your bills.
If you receive your personal allowance on a card, we will share information about your name, date of birth and address to the card supplier so that we can open the account and post the card to you.
Use of Information After Your Death
If the ADT is managing your finances when you die, we will use your information to contact:
- a named executor (if you have a will), or
- any family members listed on your record
This allows us to transfer any funds we hold to your estate.
If there is no will and no executor or family members recorded, we may need to share limited information with a genealogy company to identify someone to administer your estate.
The information shared may include:
- name
- date of birth
- date of death
- place of birth
- place of death
- marital status
European Economic Area (EEA)
If you receive your personal allowance on a prepaid card, we will share your information with the card supplier for this service. The prepaid card supplier PFS may transfer data outside of the EEA, for further information see the PFSL Privacy Information Notice.
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 outside of the European Economic Area.
What is the legal basis for processing your information?
Your data will be processed in line with the authority granted by the Department for Work and Pensions BF56 where East Sussex County Council are your Appointee or the Court of Protection Court Order. These give ESCC legal authority to act on your behalf to manage your finances.
Data held about family members or connected people is only processed if express consent is given by that person and only for the purpose of confirming rules of intestate via a genealogy company.
How long will your information be kept for?
Your information will be held in line with the East Sussex County Council retention schedule.
Sharing your information
Your data will only be shared where East Sussex County Council are acting on your behalf as the Appointee or Deputy in line with the legal authority granted.
Personal information such as name, address and date of birth may be shared with suppliers or organisations that we work with to allow us to manage your finances securely and effectively.
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.
Use of third party organisations
East Sussex County Council may share your information with trusted external organisations to process your data on our behalf.
We will share information with organisations on your behalf to manage your financial affairs. If we provide you with a prepaid card for your personal allowance, we will share information with the supplier to open your account.
Mental Capacity Assessments (including COP3)
To meet our statutory responsibilities, we may refer to approved external organisations to complete Mental Capacity Assessments (MCAs) for us. This includes:
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COP3 assessments to support Court of Protection deputyship applications
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Other MCAs required to support decision‑making or assess a person’s capacity to manage their finances
To complete these assessments, we will need to share relevant personal, health and financial information. Only the minimum necessary information will be shared.
Annual Reviews (OPG Minimum Standards)
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) requires that every person under deputyship is visited at least once each year.
Where necessary, we may refer to external organisations to carry out these annual visits on our behalf.
To complete the visit, we will share the information needed to understand and review your circumstances, which may include:
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personal information
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financial details
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relevant health or support information
All external organisations working on our behalf must meet data protection requirements and process your information securely.
Any organisation commissioned by the Council will be under contractual obligation to comply with data protection legislation.
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:
Appointee and Deputyship Team
4th Floor, St Marys House
52 St Leonards Road
Eastbourne BN21 3UU
Phone: 01323 747438
Email: ASC Appointeeship
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)