Rights and Participation Advocacy Service Privacy Notice

Who are we?

The Role of the Rights and Participation Advocacy Service (RAP) is to optimise and empower children and young people’s involvement in strategic, local and day to day decisions that affect their lives.

They challenge and champion children and young people’s rights to ensure that when decisions are made children and young people are involved, consulted and listened to. They offer issue-based advocacy for children in care, care leavers and support to children and young people within the child protection process.

Advocates provide a safe space to look at concerns and consider all the options available to a child or young person, whilst acknowledging issues and disagreements in order to move forward whilst building skills to self-reflect, communicate and challenge where needed.

The team can be contacted at advocacy@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk

What personal information do we collect to deliver this service?

To provide this service we collect the following information about you and your family (these lists are not exhaustive): 

  • personal information such as your name, preferred name, placement address, date of birth
  • special category information such as ethnicity, disabilities
  • current school
  • family or carers contact details
  • referral or assessment information
  • details about what the child or young person’s concern(s) are
  • training and qualifications

How we collect this information

We collect personal information in the following ways: 

  • online forms
  • referral forms

How your personal information is stored

Your personal data is stored on Trust Case Management Systems and Secure network drive with appropriate access controls and access permissions.

All advocates are well aware of safeguarding responsibilities and the limits of confidentiality; however we are not required to work with young people in a ‘best interest’ way.

Purposes of collecting this personal information

  •  assessments
  • access services and service delivery
  • share offers and opportunities

How we use this personal information

We engage with children and young people to present their concerns or views in meetings and reviews as appropriate at meetings such as Child Protection Conferences, Children in Care Reviews and Family Group Conferences. The team also helps to ensure that the child or young person’s views and experiences are fed into senior managers and across the social work field to promote better outcomes and the improvement of services.

The team also supports our Children in Care Council and Care Leavers Forum and leads on many children in care engagement opportunities as well as recruiting, training, and supporting Independent Visitors for children and young people in care.

We support children & young people to acknowledge issues and disagreements and to take these forward – building skills to self-reflect, communicate & challenge appropriately.

How long we will we keep your personal data?

We have a legal obligation to keep business records of our involvement with you. The type of service you receive will determine how long we have to keep your personal data.

Currently all social care records children’s records have a minimum retention of 75 years.

Our corporate retention guidelines show how long we keep information for different services. Your records will be retained in accordance with the Trust’s records retention schedule.

What is the legal basis for the collection and use of your personal information?

We collect and use your personal information in order to:

  • Perform a Statutory Duty
  • To enable service delivery
  • To enable official reporting

The legal bases that govern and direct our service delivery are as follows: 

  • Local Government and Public Involvement in Heath Act 2007
  • Children Act 1989
  • Mental Capacity Act 2005
  • Care Act 2014
  • Care and Support Regulations 2014

Who we may share your information with

If required we will share your information with Birmingham City Council who commission Birmingham Children’s Trust. 

We may also share your information with the following organisations (this list is not exhaustive): 

  • Ofsted
  • Residential care provider
  • Police
  • Youth Offending Service
  • School
  • Local Authorities

Why do we share this information?

In order for the Safeguarding and Child Protection service to fully carry out its legal duties and to deliver its service it is a necessary requirement to share this information.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law.

Is your personal information processed outside of the European Economic Community (EEC)?

We do not process your personal data outside of the EEC.

Marketing

At no time will your information be used or passed to others for marketing or sales purposes, or for any commercial use without your express consent.

What are your information rights?

Under UK GDPR you have rights which you can exercise free of charge which allow you to:

  • Know what we are doing with your information and why we are doing it.
  • Ask to see what information we hold about you (subject access request).
  • Ask us to correct any mistakes in the information we hold about you.
  • Object to direct marketing.
  • Make a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office.
  • Withdraw consent at any time (if applicable as this will not be possible in certain circumstances).

Depending on our reason for using your information you may also be entitled to:

  • Ask us to delete information we hold about you (if applicable)
  • Have your information transferred electronically to yourself or to another organisation.
  • Object to decisions being made that significantly affect you.
  • Object to how we are using your information.
  • Stop us using your information in certain ways.

We will always seek to comply with your request however we may be required to hold or use your information to comply with legal duties which will override the requirements of the UK GDPR. Please note, your request may delay or prevent us delivering a service to you.

For further information about your rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under UK GDPR.

To access our Corporate Privacy Notice please click here.