About Us
Francis House Homecare, trading under Bedfordshire Supported Housing is a leading provider in Bedfordshire for people who require regular support and care at home at a time convenient to them. We provide a service to anyone who requires support and personal care to enable them to live independently and remain in their own home.
We are committed to ensuring that the privacy of our service users, social or healthcare professionals, visitors, the public and staff is protected and respected in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This policy sets out how we collect, use, retain and disclose the personal information we hold about you.
As the ‘controller’, we will ensure that personal information we hold is:
- Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
- Accurate and kept up to date
- Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
- Kept securely
Information collected by us
When you enquire about our care services or employment opportunities through our website, phone, email, post, face to face or social media, we collect the following personal information when you provide it to us. We will also retain this whist providing care to you or during your employment with us:
- Basic details, such as name, address, date of birth, next of kin.
- Your allergies and any medical, physical or mental conditions
- Your likes, dislikes and lifestyle preferences (including your religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, racial or ethnic origin, politics, genetics, health, sex life, marital status and sexuality trade union membership or biometrics
- Credit, direct debit details or other payment information
- Your complaints, compliments or concerns about your time with us
- Information from people who know you such as referees or care for you such as health professionals and relatives
- Any accidents and incidents or near misses you may have been involved in whist on our premises or whilst delivering or receiving care
If we are providing care to you, we may also collect information via your healthcare professional, referral details from your GP or from the local authority.
How we use this information
We use your personal information to:
- Help inform and deliver decisions we make about your care or employment
- Communicate with you, your representatives and any appropriate external social or health care professionals about your individual needs
- Make reasonable adjustments, when required, to meet your individual needs and ensure we have suitable safe facilities
- Process administrative tasks such as financial transactions
- Notify you of any changes to our service, your care delivery or employment
- Carry out obligations arising from any contract entered between you and Francis House Homecare
- Look into, and respond to, complaints, incidents, legal matters or any other issues
Who we share your information with
We may share your personal information with third parties where required to by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship, such as Health and Social Care professions, regulatory bodies i.e. CQC, Beds Borough Council, accountants and any other outsourced consultancy services. We expect all third parties to respect the security of your data.
How information is retained and kept safe
We have in place appropriate security measures and cloud-based systems to prevent your personal information from being accidently lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. Further details of measures may be obtained from our Data Controller (contact details below). We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
Your rights
Under GDPR you have important rights. In summary, these rights include:
- Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you
- Request erasure (also known as ‘right to be forgotten’) of your personal information such as asking us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. There may be circumstances where we are unable to delete your information i.e. required by law, legal claims or where it is used for public health purpose.
- Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is someone about your situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground
- Request to the restriction of processing your personal information such as asking us to suspend the processing if you want us to establish its accuracy
- Request a transfer of your personal information to another party
For more information
For more information about your rights under the General Data Protection Regulations, go to the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk
Making a complaint
If you would like to make a complaint about how we process your personal data, please contact Dean Pinnock, our Data Controller by
Email – enquires@bedssupportedhousing.co.uk
Post – Francis House, 231 Bedford Road. Kempston, Bedford MK42 8DA
Telephone – 01234 841808
If we are unable to resolve your query or concern you may contact the Information Commissioner Office (www.ico.org.uk). You are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office without first referring your complaint to us. For further information please see the Information Commissioner’s guidance.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserves the right to update this notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new notice when any substantial updates are made.