Privacy Notice
Share this page
Choice Support is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal information. This privacy notice tells you what we will do with your personal data.
We will tell you:
- our contact details
- what information we collect, use, and why
- lawful bases and data protection rights
- where we get personal information from
- how long we keep information
- who we share information with
- if we share information outside the UK
- how to complain
Controller’s contact details
Choice Support is the data controller for the personal information we process, unless otherwise stated.
There are many ways you can contact us, including by phone, email and post.
Our postal address
Choice Support, Compass House, 84 Holland Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1UT, GB
Telephone: 01622 722 400
For general enquires please use this page on our website
Data Protection Officer's contact details
Our Data Protection Officer is Belinda Wabwire Moosbauer. If you wish to contact her you can do so by emailing data.protection@choicesupport.org.uk or via our postal address. Please mark the envelope ‘Data Protection Officer’.
What information we collect, use, and why
We collect or use the following information to provide support:
- Name, address and contact details
- Gender
- Pronoun preferences
- Date of birth
- NHS number
- Hospital Number
- National Insurance number
- Next of Kin details including any support networks
- Emergency contact details
- Photographs
- Health information (including medical conditions, allergies, medical requirements and medical history)
- Information about care needs (including disabilities, home conditions, medication and dietary requirements and general care provisions)
- Test results (including psychological evaluations, scans, bloods, x-rays)
- Records of meetings and decisions
- Information about income and financial needs for funding or personal budget support
- Information about risk history and criminal records
We also collect the following special category information to provide support. This information is subject to additional protection due to its sensitive nature:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or philosophical beliefs
- Health information
- Sex life information
- Sexual orientation information
We collect or use the following personal information for recruitment purposes:
- Contact details (eg name, address, telephone number or personal email address)
- Date of birth
- Employment history (eg job application, employment references or secondary employment)
- Education history (eg qualifications)
We also collect the following special category information for recruitment purposes. This information is subject to additional protection due to its sensitive nature:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or philosophical beliefs
- Health information
- Sexual orientation information
We collect or use the following personal information for information updates, marketing or market research purposes:
- Names and contact details
- Website and app user journey information
- Records of consent, where appropriate
We collect or use the following personal information for dealing with queries, complaints or claims:
- Names and contact details
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights we need to make you aware of. A brief overview of these rights is provided below, although the rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information.
Your right of access
You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal information from and who we share personal information with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for.
Your right to rectification
You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete
Your right to erasure
You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information
Your right to restriction of processing
You have the right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information
Your right to object to processing
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data
Your right to data portability
You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you
Your right to withdraw consent
When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.
To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.
Our lawful bases for the collection and use of your data
Under UK data protection law, we must have a “lawful basis” for collecting and using your personal information. You can find out more about lawful bases on the ICO’s website.
Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information to provide support are:
Consent - We have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
Contract - We have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
Legal obligation - We have to collect or use your information so we can comply with the law. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to erasure, the right to object and the right to data portability.
Legitimate interests - We’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability.
Vital interests - Collecting or using the information is needed when someone’s physical or mental health or wellbeing is at urgent or serious risk. This includes an urgent need for life sustaining food, water, clothing or shelter. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object and the right to portability.
Our lawful basis for collecting or using personal information for recruitment purposes, information updates, dealing with queries and complaints is:
Consent - We have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
For special category data, we rely on Article 9(2)(h) (health and social care purposes) and, where applicable, explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)).
Where we get personal information from
- Directly from you
- Regulatory authorities
- Family members or carers
- Social Services
- Councils and other public sector organisations
- Relevant regulatory authorities
- Other health and care providers such as adult social care providers and NHS Trusts
- Previous employers
- Current employers
- Recruitment agencies you have shared your information with
How long we keep information
We have a records retention policy that sets out how long we keep your personal information. As a general rule, we keep your personal information for as long as is necessary but not for longer than we need it.
Each type of personal data may be kept for different periods of time. For more information on how long we store your personal information or the criteria we use to determine this please contact us using the details provided above.
Who we share information with
Others we share personal information with
- Health providers (eg GPs and consultants)
- Insurance companies, brokers and other intermediaries
- Care providers
- Organisations we need to share information with for safeguarding reasons
- Emergency services
- Professional advisors
- Local authorities or councils
- External auditors or inspectors
- Organisations we’re legally obliged to share personal information with
- Publicly on our website, social media or other marketing and information media
- Current employers
- Previous employers
Duty of confidentiality
We are subject to a common law duty of confidentiality. However, there are circumstances where we will share relevant health and care information. These are where:
- you’ve provided us with your consent (we have taken it as implied to provide you with care, or you have given it explicitly for other uses)
- we have a legal requirement (including court orders) to collect, share or use the data
- on a case-by-case basis, the public interest to collect, share and use the data overrides the public interest served by protecting the duty of confidentiality (for example sharing information with the police to support the detection or prevention of serious crime)
- the requirements of The Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 are satisfied.
Use of AI
We use AI tools to improve our services (eg data analysis, operational efficiency). These tools do not make decisions about people or affect your rights.
Automated decision-making and profiling
We do not carry out any automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects on people.
National data opt-out
We comply with the National Data Opt-Out policy for any confidential information we hold about a person.
The people that we support can choose to stop their confidential information being used for research and planning. To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.
Sharing information outside the UK
We use cloud-based service providers to store and process personal data.
Some of these providers are located in the European Union (EU). Transfers to the EU are permitted under UK data protection law as the EU is covered by a UK adequacy decision, meaning it is recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection.
We also use a cloud-based service provider located in the United States. Where personal data is transferred to the US, the transfer is made in reliance on the UK–US Data Bridge, which is a UK adequacy regulation confirming that participating US organisations provide an adequate level of protection for personal data.
You can obtain further information about international data transfers and the safeguards we rely on by contacting us using the contact information provided above.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.
If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
