Adult social care Provision of Client Level Data privacy notice

In April 2023, the Secretary of State for Health gave directions requiring NHS England (formerly NHS Digital) to collect and analyse client-level adult social care data from local authorities. The adult social care team in the council is therefore obliged to submit this data to NHS England, with the first data return occurring in July 2023.

This requirement is a significant shift in the level of detail and the frequency of Adult Social Care data that is to be provided to NHS England by local authorities. The Data Provision Notice requiring submission of the data can be on their website. 

The NHS England privacy notice for the collection of this data is available on their website.

If you have questions regarding this service or our privacy practices, you can contact us by e-mail mashrequests@walthamforest.gov.uk

or by post at:

Waltham Forest Council
Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road
Walthamstow E17 4JF

Please note that face-to-face meetings are by appointment only and can be arranged with the service.

The Adult Social Care (ASC) team in the council collects and uses personal information to meet our legal obligations to provide services to residents.

The information that we hold that will be shared with NHS England under the directions of the Secretary of State is as follows:

• NHS number
• Local authority’s person unique identifier
• First name and last name
• Information about you such as date of birth, postcode and sensitive information such as sex and ethnicity
• Accommodation status
• GP Practice
• Employment status 
• Health information including disabilities, impairments, Dementia, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Information about carers and the support provided by any carers.

The specific data items that will be shared are listed in the Excel sheet available for download on their website.  

The Government’s stated aim of this obligatory data collection is to support local health and care systems.

The data collected will assist Local Government and Clinical Commissioning Groups in fulfilling their statutory functions including those under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, which are:

1. Monitoring, at a population level, particular cohorts of service users and designing analytical models that support more effective interventions in health and adult social care
2. Monitoring service and integrated care outcomes across a pathway or care setting involving adult social care
3. Developing, through evaluation of person-level data, more effective prevention strategies and interventions across a pathway or care setting involving adult social care
4. Designing and implementing new payment models across health and adult social care
5. Understanding current and future population needs and resource utilisation for local strategic planning and commissioning purposes including for health, social care, and public health needs.

NHS England will also analyse the information that is shared to try to understand the adult social care health data held by different London boroughs and to eventually roll out this data collection to all England boroughs.

The legal basis for processing your data is Article 6(1) (c) Legal obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations) and Article 9(2)(h) management of the social care system.

The legal obligation flows from the directions given by the Secretary of State for Health requiring NHS England to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of client-level adult social care data from local authorities, and provide the mandatory information specified, to support local health and care systems (Source: Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023 - NHS Digital).

Data will be shared with NHS England. NHS England becomes the controller of the data once the local authority has submitted it and as controller, NHS England will share it with other organisations under its responsibility and authority as the data controller.

National data opt-outs do not apply to flows of data from local authorities into NHS England where these are required under s259 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 following a Direction from Secretary of State or NHS England or a mandatory request.

Information will be shared to benefit health and care, for example with other local authorities, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and the Department of Health and Social Care. Wherever possible, anonymous data is shared. Identifiable information can only be shared by NHS England where there is a clear legal basis and appropriate approvals in place.

NHS England may also share the data with Local Authorities by sending back to them the data they submitted with data quality checks completed and missing NHS numbers traced.

Local Authorities can also request access to the pseudonymised data, with identifiers removed and replaced with a pseudonym, with links to other NHS England commissioning datasets, to support their duty to monitor and manage the local care system.

When we no longer need to keep information about you, we will review it and archive it for any relevant legal retention period. After that period, we will dispose of it in a secure manner.

NHS England retains the ASC client level data for a maximum of 20 years from when the information is received, this is subject to appraisal if there is a justifiable reason to extend.