DECORUM CARE & SUPPORT SERVICES LIMITED PRIVACY POLICY

General Data Protection Regulation

  1. Introduction and General Terms

Decorum Care & Support Services Limited is the legal entity that runs Southlands Care Home 21 Coombeshead Road, Highweek, Newton Abbot, TQ12 1PY.  We are  committed to protecting any personal information we obtain about you, whether you are a person using our service, their next of kin, employed by us or  just visiting our website.  This Privacy Policy sets out how we obtain, use and protect any personal information you provide to us, whether online, via phone, text, email, in letters or in other correspondence.

This privacy policy explains the following:

  • what information the Company may collect about you;
  • how the Company will use information we collect about you;
  • when the Company may use your details to contact you;
  • whether the Company will disclose your details to anyone else;
  • your choices regarding the personal information you provide to us; the use of cookies on the Company website and how you can exercise your choices in relation to those cookies.

The Company is committed to safeguarding your personal information. Whenever you provide such information, we are legally obliged to use your information in line with all laws concerning the protection of personal information, including the Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation.

The Company website contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including policies on their use of cookies, and we urge you to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you submit or which is collected by cookies whilst visiting these websites. We cannot accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

  1. Who we are

The Company  is a registered Company  No 09297250.  The Company’s registered address is Unit 29, JBJ Business Park, Northampton Road, Blisworth, Northampton, NN7 3DW .

  1. What information will the Company collect about me?

When you contact the Company to make an enquiry about using our services, becoming an employee, volunteer or sign up to any of the Company’s activities or online content, such as newsletters or message boards, or you telephone, email, write to or text the Company, or engage with the Company via social media channels, we may receive and retain personal information about you. This can consist of information such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number, bank account details, personal and medical details, next of kin details, their contact information and details to enable us to offer a service or employment or to keep you in touch with our service.

By submitting your details, you enable the Company (and where applicable any sub-contractors we may use) to provide you with the goods, services, information, activities or online content you select.

If you use our services we will need to collect and hold “sensitive personal data” about you, e.g. health status, personal preferences / wishes / care notes but only if there is a clear reason for doing so. This will include information kept on paper or electronically including “cloud” and storage devices.

If you are simply browsing our website as an anonymous visitor, The Company may still collect certain information from you, such as your IP addresses (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet).

The Company also uses cookies.  Cookies are small text files on your device.  They are made by your web browser when you visit a website. Every time you go back to that website, your browser will send the cookie file back to the website’s server.  They improve your experience of using a website, for example, by remembering your preference settings and by measuring your use of a website to ensure that it meets your needs.  See Section 10 below for more detail on how we use cookies and how you can control your cookie preferences.

  1. How will the Company use the information you collect about me?

The Company will use your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

  • in relation to any correspondence you have entered into with us whether by letter, email, text, social media, message board or any other means;
  • for “service administration purposes”, which means that the Company may contact you for reasons related to the provision of services we are providing you or someone else you are connected too or the activity or online content you have signed up for;
  • to provide you or your relative (if living at Southlands) with care and support services
  • for internal record keeping;
  • to fulfil sales contracts you or your relative / person you are legally responsible for have entered into with the Company;
  • to contact you about any content you provide;
  • to invite you to participate in surveys or research about the Company or our work (participation is always voluntary);
  • for marketing purposes where you have specifically agreed to this (see below);
  • to provide you with information about our activities or online content you have agreed to receive;
  • to personalise the way the Company content is presented to you;
  • to use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from different countries;
  • to analyse and improve the activities and content offered by the Company website to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience. We may also use and disclose information in aggregate (so that no individuals are identified) for marketing and strategic development purposes.
  1. Will I be contacted for marketing purposes?

The Company will only contact you for marketing purposes by email or other electronic means if you have agreed to be contacted for these purposes or where you have made contact and have not opted out from receiving further information.  Where you have provided your postal address we may send you direct mail about our work unless you have told us that you do not wish to receive such information.

If you wish to contact us either to obtain information about our work or to stop us sending you such information please email us at enquiries@southlandscarehome.co.uk, call 01626 363510 or write to Andrew Bone, Southlands Care Home, 21 Coombeshead Road, Highweek, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 1PY with the details.

  1. Will the Company share my personal information with anyone else?

We will only use your information within the Company for the purposes for which it was obtained, including organisations we sub contract for Pay Roll, Accountancy, Pension, website services etc, NHS / health or Devon County Council unless you have explicitly agreed that we may share your information with another organisation. Sometimes the Company contracts third parties to process your information on our behalf.  We require these third parties to comply strictly with our instructions and data protection laws.

The vast majority of personal information is recorded on “Person Centred Software” provided by an external company called Mobile Care Monitoring. This provides us with a secure means of recording personal information about residents and their next of kin / representatives, care required, care received and monitoring / assessment tools.   “Person Centred Software” is a cloud based electronic recording system which has significant security systems to protect the data.

We will keep your information confidential except where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies for tax purposes or law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime, subject to such bodies providing us with a relevant request in writing).

  1. Offensive or inappropriate content placed on the Company website

If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content to or anywhere on the Company website or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on a service, we may use your personal information to stop such behaviour.

Where the Company reasonably believes that you are or may be in breach of any of the laws of England and Wales (or the law of Scotland if you live there) (e.g. because content you have posted may be defamatory), we may use your personal information to inform relevant third parties such as your employer, internet provider or law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour.

  1. How long will the Company keep my personal information?

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, e.g. financial details 7 years, care notes / records 8 years, employment records 8 years after you leave our employment however some information will be kept longer so the Company can meet its legal obligations on such areas as pensions or contentious matters.  If you request us not to send you marketing information we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.

Where you contribute material to us, e.g. user generated content or in response to a particular campaign we will generally only keep your content for as long as is reasonably required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted unless otherwise stated at the point of generation.

  1.  What is the Company’s policy on allowing me to update, correct, or delete my personal information?

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If any personal information changes concerning you or other people we are in contact with or there are inaccuracies in the information we hold please contact us by phone or in writing so that we can look into the matter. We will aim to update our records within 28 days.

Through:  Enquiries@southlandscarehome.co.uk, call 01626 363510 or write to Andrew Bone, Southlands Care Home, 21 Coombeshead Road, Highweek, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 1PY with the details.

Under the Data Protection Act and General Data Protection Regulation you have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. If you request a change in the information we hold you maybe required to prove your identity or have the legal right to represent someone else.

Please address requests and questions about this or any other question about this Privacy Policy to the Data Protection Officer Andrew Bone, Southlands Care Home, 21 Coombeshead Road, Highweek, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 1PY with the details.

  1. Changes to the Company’s Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to the Company  The date of the most recent revisions will appear on our website.this page. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the Company website to submit personal information to the Company   If material changes are made to the Privacy Policy we will notify you by placing a prominent notice on the website.

  1. Cookies Policy – Information the Company collects from your computer or mobile device
  2. What is a cookie?

Cookies are small text files on your device.  They are made by your web-browser when you visit a website.  Every time you go back to that website, your browser will send the cookie file back to the website’s server.  Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device.  You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu. For a video about cookies visit http://www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/data-on-the-web/cookies

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience.

They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

  1. Why does the Company use cookies?

Like many websites, the Company uses cookies in order to provide you with a more personalised web service.

Cookies help us identify which bits of our website people are using, and help us do work on those sections of the website to improve the user experience.  We also use cookies to help show content on our site which is relevant to you and your interests, for example if on a previous visit you went to our pages about the archbishop, news or events, we might find this out from your cookie and show you other information on our website related to the archbishop, news or events on subsequent visits. We also use Third Party Cookies through Google Analytics to help analyse website traffic. The following cookies are used for this purpose:

_utma

This cookie is used to determine new and returning visitors.  It has an expiration time of 2 years.  If the ga.js library is executed and no _utma cookie exists, this will be recorded as the users’ first visit and a _utma cookie will be set.  If a _utma cookie is already in place, the expiration time is reset and the user is recorded as a return visitor.

_utmb

This cookie is used to determine a new session.  The cookie is set when the ga.js library executes and there is no _utmb cookie in place.  It has an expiration time of 30 minutes, therefore if a user is inactive for a period longer than this, a new cookie will be set when the library executes and the interaction will be recorded as a new session.

_utmz

This cookie is used to determine the traffic source, medium, campaign name and campaign term which delivered the user to your website.  It is created when the javascript library executes and expires after 6 months.  This helps Google collect the data which can then help them to determine which traffic sources assist conversions within the multi-channel section of Analytics.

_utmv

This cookie is used for storing visitor-level custom variable data.  It is created when the _setCustomVar method is used with a visitor level custom variable.  Like the _utma cookie, this cookie expires after 2 years and is reset each time the user visits your site before the expiration of the cookie.

Information supplied in cookies also allows us to measure the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns for the Company. This enables us to ensure any money we spend on digital marketing gives us a good return on investment.

  1.  Further information on the Company cookies and how to control your cookie preferences

How to control and delete cookies

Cookies are used to enable us to improve services for you through, for example:

  • remembering if you are logged in so you can move around the website without having to log in again on each page (for example if you are in checkout)
  • measuring how many people are using each page of the website and for how long so that we can try to improve the quality of our website
  • enabling you to view content shared on other sites e.g. YouTube or Twitter

 

However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by the Company website, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the Company website.