Privacy Notice
Simply Social Work Ltd provide Social Work and Expert Witness services across England and Wales. Our registered office is at 80-83 Long Lane, London, EC1A 9ET. This privacy notice provides information about the personal information we process about you as a data controller, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Our ICO registration number is ZB395074. Simply Social Work is a trading name of Simply Social Work Ltd, a limited company and our registration number is 13618309.
Please contact our Business Support Officer at hello@simplysocialwork.co.uk with any questions or requests about the personal information we process.
Your rights
We are committed to protecting your rights to privacy. They include:
- Right to be informed about what we do with your personal data
- Right to have a copy of all the personal information we process about you
- Right to rectification of any inaccurate data we process, and to add to the information we hold about you if it is incomplete
- Right to be forgotten and your personal data destroyed
- Right to restrict the processing of your personal data
- Right to object to the processing we carry out based on our legitimate interest
The personal data we process, why we process it, where it comes from and the legal basis for doing so
Legal cases
We process the personal data of individuals who are obtaining legal advice or are engaged in a legal dispute, and also the personal data of witnesses and others with links to the issues in the case.
Social Work Services
We process the personal data of individuals who receive social work services including; Mental Capacity Assessments, Deprivation of Liberty Assessments and Care Assessments. We also process the personal data of professionals, family members and others with links to the service being provided.
The personal data may include:
- Names, contact details and dates of birth
- Financial information and bank details
- Health information and social circumstances
- Information about race, ethnic origin and sex
The personal data are generally provided by the person instructing us in relation to the particular service, who is usually a solicitor or local authority.
We process the data because it is in our legitimate interests as an Expert Witness and Social Workers to do so. We need to see and analyse documents containing this information in order to provide our expert advice and Social Work services.
In relation to any special category personal data, such as health records or information concerning, race, ethnic origin, or sex is, we rely on the legal claims basis for processing this data, in addition to our legitimate interest.
In many cases, an individual has consented to the transfer of their personal data to us. Where an individual has consented, they may easily withdraw it by notifying us at the email address above.
Other personal data
We also process personal data pursuant to our legitimate interests in running our business such as:
- Invoices and receipts
- Accounts, VAT and tax returns
- Insurance policies and related documents
We use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Their privacy policies can be found by visiting their respective websites. If you have contacted us using one of these platforms, we may reply using the same method but won’t process your information outside of these platforms without your prior consent or unless it is in our legitimate interests to do so.
Finally, our website uses a contact form to make contacting us as easy as possible. The contact form sends an email to our email client where your data is stored to ensure we can respond to your message. Our website (simplysocialwork.co.uk) uses cookies and logs user IP addresses to analyse our traffic. We use a platform called StatCounter to achieve this and details of the cookies set on your computer can be found by visiting their website.
Retention period
Personal data is retained, where necessary, for six years in compliance with our professional indemnity obligations. Where this is not necessary, it is destroyed on the conclusion of the case.
Administrative data is retained for up to six years as necessary, in the unlikely event there are queries from HMRC and the VAT commissioner. Where it is not necessary to retain the data for six years, it is destroyed as soon as possible.
Who do we share personal data with?
We share personal data internally strictly on a need to know basis.
Special category data and personnel files held electronically are password protected with restricted access. Hard copy special category and other personal data is stored securely with restricted access.
We do not share personal data with anyone external to the organisation, other than with:
- Those who have instructed us as an Expert Witness or Social Worker
- HMRC and the VAT Commissioner as they require
- With others pursuant to a court order
The security of your personal data
We use a case management system called, Thread. It is a secure online system and none of your personal data is stored locally on any of our employees’ devices. Where an associate (an Independent Social Worker) has been provided with your data, we expect them to store your data in line with their own data protection policies and procedures. To further protect your data, no passwords to access Thread are stored (or remembered) on our devices for ease of access.
Information Commissioner’ s Office
If you have any concerns about the way your personal information has been processed, please contact us. Alternatively, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113.
