How we use your information
If you are referred to us
We receive referrals for people who may be in need of care and support services from a range of sources, such as other professionals, GPs, nurses or hospitals, schools, relatives or neighbours of the person being referred, or from the person themselves.
If we receive a referral for you from someone else, we’ll always let you know that you’ve been referred. We’ll also contact the person or organisation who has referred you. This is so they know we have received their referral. We may also want to find out a bit more about you and the reason for the referral, so we will often get in touch to get further information in order to determine if your needs are likely to meet our eligibility criteria.
Our team will look at the referral and decide what happens next. If the referral meets our criteria, we will be in touch with you to arrange a needs assessment.
If you are assessed by us
As part of the assessment process we’ll ask you for information about circumstances in order to understand what your care and support needs are. As part of the process we may speak to other organisations who are involved in your care and support. During the assessment process we will carry out a financial assessment and a risk assessment.
We record this information about you as part of the assessment process on our Social Care Case Recording System and use this to agree a Care Plan with you, which is also kept on our CareFirst system. You’ll always be offered a copy of your assessment and Care Plan.
After you’ve been assessed
Once we have agreed your Care Plan, we will discuss with you the four options under Self-directed support. If you have chosen a Direct Payment (option1) we will share your information about your individual budget including your name ,address , post code and email address onto our approved providers secure portal. If we are arranging a service on your behalf we will put information about your care requirements and your postcode area (for example: AB11) onto an electronic portal. This is so that we can match your requirement for care with any available care provider resource in your area which will enable us to confirm your care package. We do not put any information about you on this portal other than your care requirements and your postcode area.
Once we have identified a provider who can provide the service you need, we will share your Care Plan with them so they can provide the care you require.
Reviewing your Care Plan
We’ll review your Care Plan with you on a regular basis. The first review will happen 6 weeks after it has been put in place, the second at 6 months. After that, we’ll review your Care Plan with you on an annual basis. We’ll also review your Care Plan with you if your care needs change at any time.
If your Care Plan is updated because your needs have changed, you will be offered a copy of your new Care Plan, and we will share it with your care provider.
If you do not want to be assessed by us
If you don’t want to have your care needs assessed by us, we will still keep a record of your referral and your decision not to have a care needs assessment.
This is because we have a statutory duty both to make enquiries where we believe that an adult may be at risk, and a duty to undertake care needs assessments, so we need to keep a record which shows we've carried out our statutory duty, even if you decide you do not want a care needs assessment.
Joint working and sharing
This service is part of the Aberdeen Health and Social Care Partnership. The Partnership is made up of health and social care teams from the NHS and from Aberdeen City Council working together to deliver person centred care which is integrated from your point of view.
Whilst each partner retains separate records for you, we will work together to support you and this will involve sharing limited, relevant information about you when we are required to do so.
As part of our integrated working arrangements the Council also shares limited relevant information with the Scottish Government and NHS for the purposes of planning, delivering and monitoring services, and to inform the strategic design of integrated services.
Sometimes, during the process of supporting you, you and your Social Worker may decide that it would be beneficial to refer or support you to access other Council services (for example, Housing) or outside organisations for further help or support. To do this on your behalf will normally mean the Social Worker sharing some information about you with that service or organisation. If this is the case, this will always be discussed between you and your Social Worker, on a case by case basis, and be done with your agreement.
We will also share information with Social Security Scotland to help Social Security Scotland to administer Adult Disability Payments. If we are contacted for the purpose of supplying additional information to support your application for Adult Disability Payments, with your consent, we will provide proportionate and relevant information to aid the application process. This will normally involve specific questions being posed to your allocated Practitioner who shall process the request in a timely manner. We shall keep a copy of the information shared on our electronic case management system.
We will treat your case file confidentially, though you should you should also be aware that there are some limited circumstances where information from your case file may be shared, particularly to prevent risk of harm to you or others.
The Council is obliged to participate in the National Fraud Initiative in Scotland and in terms of this passes information to Audit Scotland for data matching to detect fraud or possible fraud. Details of this exercise can be found on Audit Scotland’s website.
How long we keep your information for
We will keep your information for five years, plus the current year, from the date that you no longer have identified care needs that we are responsible for, or from the date that you decide you no longer want to receive care services. If you decide you do not want to have a Care Needs Assessment, we’ll keep your information for five years from our last contact with you.
Your rights
You have rights in relation to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. See more information about all the rights you have and how they work in practice, as well as contact details for the Council’s Data Protection Officer. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you think we haven’t handled your data properly. You have rights to your data, including the right to ask for a copy of it. More information on all the right you have, and how they work in practice, is available on the Council’s website at: www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/your-data.
Our legal basis
Aberdeen City Council has a statutory duty under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to carry out needs assessments for people we think may care services, and we have a general duty to promote social welfare by providing advice, guidance, and assistance. We also have a duty under the Adult Support & Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 to make enquiries where we think an adult may be at risk. This means that we understand our legal basis for processing personal information required to take referrals and undertake assessments and put in place and review care plans being part of our public task, and things which we are required to do by law.
As part of the Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership, we must work with the NHS to provide services which are integrated from the point of view of our service users under the Public Sector (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.
In all of the above cases, the Council is also likely to process special categories of personal data. The Council understands our legal basis for doing so as necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.
Where we share information with Social Security Scotland, we understand our legal basis as being part of our public task under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. In doing so, the Council is likely to process special categories of personal data. The Council understands our legal basis for doing so as being necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.
We have a legal obligation under Part 2A of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000, to provide Audit Scotland with data to carry out data matching exercises for the purpose of assisting in the prevention and detection of fraud.