Your privacy is important to us
Together for Adoption is a regional adoption agency which is hosted by Wigan Council, dealing with adoption matters for Councils in Wigan, Cheshire West and Chester, St Helens, Halton and Warrington. We've joined together to make it easier for adopters and children to find their forever families.
Data Controller
All of the participating authorities are Joint Data Controllers when processing personal information in relation to the adoption service as they each remain responsible at different stages of the decision-making process for determining the purpose and the manner in which the personal data is to be processed and they each have a statutory duty for the maintenance of adoption services in relation to their area. This is a joint privacy notice provided on behalf of all participating authorities for the purposes of the regional adoption agency, known as Together for Adoption.
Purposes
The information we collect from you, which includes your personal data and special category data also known as sensitive data, will be used solely for adoption purposes; to assess if adoption is right for you and your family; if now is the right time for you to adopt and if you are able to adopt the children who currently need adoptive families and, after you have become an adopter to provide continuing support. Information is shared between the professionals in the participating authorities and adoption panel members in support of these purposes.
Legal basis
We collect and hold your information to comply with our legal obligations in accordance with legislation such as the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and to carry out public tasks in the public interest. GDPR Articles 6 (1) c) and e).
Our service also needs to process sensitive personal data relating to you (also called "special category data") which requires more protection by us to keep it safe and which we process in order to comply with our obligations under social protection law. GDPR 9 (2) b).
We need to be as sure as possible that you'll be able to care for a child through to adulthood.
We will ask your consent for you to have a medical examination by your registered medical practitioner who will then send us a written report about your health and respond to any further related enquiries as necessary. If we feel that further enquiries from medical specialists may be needed, we may obtain further health information.
For the purposes of adoption support services, we will also seek your consent to this support and may need to provide information to therapeutic service providers.
Data sharing
We will share information with the relevant individuals, agencies or organisations to verify the information you have provided, to obtain references and to check your suitability. This may include address and social care checks as well. This will usually include contact with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), the NHS or the Police, education, other LA’s Voluntary adoption agencies (VAA), personal referees, previous employers, any voluntary service where you have worked with vulnerable adults and children, grown up children, ex-partners and children and parents that you have cared for. These robust checks are required under the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005.
We will also share or collect information with relevant individuals, agencies or organisations for the purposes of the adoption support assessment. This will include the Adoption Panel Members and may also include contact with other local authorities or jurisdictions where a child has links or where you have resided, the NHS, and schools but only where it is necessary and appropriate to do so.
There may also be certain circumstances, such as child protection and safeguarding matters, where we are legally obliged to share with the police and any relevant local authority or public body. However, this will only happen when strictly necessary and in accordance with our legal obligations.
In general terms the information you provide will not be transferred to a third party, unless it is appropriate to do so. None of your personal data is transferred to any third countries or international organisations.
The ASGLB (Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board) data return is completed by every local authority, regional adoption agency and voluntary adoption agency in England on a quarterly basis. As a Regional Adoption Agency, we are asked to provide adoption data that covers the full financial year - 1st April through to 31st March. The aim is to collect information about children and prospective adopters in the adoption process and data on Special Guardianship Orders. The collected information will be shared with Ofsted and will help with decision making at a national, regional, and local level.
We will comply fully with Data Protection Act legislation (including, but not limited to UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018) and any requests exercising individual’s rights will be considered, processed and responded to within the relevant statutory timescales as far as possible.
Data rights
We take our Data Protection obligations very seriously. The information you provide will be subject to rigorous security measures and procedures to make sure it can’t be seen, accessed or disclosed to anyone who shouldn’t see it. This information will form part of the agency’s case record in respect of your application and will be stored and disposed of in line with the relevant adoption retention schedules.
You have the right under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR:
- Request a copy of your information and to know what it is used for and how it has been shared. This is called the right of subject access. However, please note that adoption records are exempted from the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018. An adopted person has an alternative right to obtain information about their adoption and history under the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005. Any request for access to adoption records will be dealt with under this regime and should be directed to the Duty Social Worker, Together for Adoption, Warrington Town Hall, Sankey Street, Warrington, WA1 1UH, 01942 487272
- 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. (Right to be forgotten). Note: where the processing is necessary in order to comply with a legal obligation this right will not apply
- To ask us to restrict the use of your information
- To object to how your information is used.
To request a copy of your data, ask questions about how it is used or exercise any of these rights, please email Cathy Sowden. Or put your request it in writing to:
Service Lead - Together for Adoption
Warrington Town Hall
Sankey Street
Warrington
WA1 1UH
This request will then be dealt with in liaison with the relevant local authority.
Independent advice
If you are unhappy about how your data is used, you can complain directly to Wigan Council’s Data Protection Officer by writing to:
Data Protection Officer
Legal, Governance and Elections Division
Resources and Legal Directorate
Wigan Council
PO BOX 100
WN1 3DS
Or email: dataprotectionofficer@wigan.gov.uk
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office using the following details:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
See further details on the Information Commissioner’s Office website (external link).
Automated decision-making
All the decisions we make about you involve human intervention.
Links to other websites
Together for Adoption’s website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.
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