Privacy Policy

1.0 Introduction

We, Cera

Group, take the protection of your personal data very seriously and strictly adhere to the rules laid out by data protection laws and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR-EU and GDPR-UK).

Cera Group comprises Advanced Community Health Care Limited, Apex Prime Care, Care Quality Services, Cera Care Operations Limited, Cyprian Care Limited, Cera Care Operations (Scotland) Limited, GemCare SouthWest Limited, Love Nursing, Nobilis, Premier Care Limited, HomeCare4U Limited, Premier Care (Housing) Limited, Premier Care (Lancashire) Limited, Mediline Home Care Limited, North West Community Services Training Limited and any other subsidiaries acquired.

This privacy policy explains how we collect and use your personal information:

by being a user ("Service User") or prospective Service User of our care services including but not limited to: On Demand Care, Elderly Care, Palliative Care, Live-in Care, Dementia Care and Private Nursing (our "Services");

by being a person(s) arranging the care for and on behalf of a Service User ("Client");

by being next of kin to a Service User or prospective Service user of our Services; or

by interacting with our content and/or services including by applying to be one of our carers or employees.

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for monitoring and providing guidance with our GDPR status. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the DPO using the contact information in section 16 of this privacy notice.

2.0 Why we Collect your personal information

We collect your personal data for one of the following purposes:

• internal record keeping;
• improvement of our products/services;
• data analytics;
• to carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between you and us;
• to communicate with you;
• to process your job applications;
• to administer the Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• conducting service improvement studies, research and clinical trials;
• transmission by email of promotional materials that may be of interest to you (where we have the right to do so);
• to contact our Clients and/or Service Users and attend their address to give care;
• to deliver quality care to the Service User;
• to take payment and grant refunds;

3.0 Lawful Basis Of Processing Information

We only collect and use personal information about you when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use it where:

• The data subject (you) has given consent to the processing activity taking place.
• If the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract.
• If the processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Cera Group is subject.
• If the processing is necessary for your vital interest.
• If the processing is necessary in the public interest.
• If the processing is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursued by us or our partners, namely facilitating and enabling the management of all matters relating to your contract and our business, but only where your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

Where legitimate interest is identified as a lawful basis, we will undertake a legitimate interest assessment which is a three-part test covering:

The purpose test – to identify the legitimate interest

Necessity test – to consider if the processing is necessary for the purpose identified

Balancing test – considering the individual's interests, rights or freedoms and whether these override the legitimate interests identified.

We will only process special category data where we have an Article 9 exception allowing us to do so, in this case, this processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment; and for the purposes of Public Health; Archiving, Research and Statistics; Health and Social Care as per the Data Protection Act 2018, schedule 1 Part 1. Where special category data may be collected during the course of activities relating to research, we will rely on explicit consent.

4.0 What Information we collect and where from

We collect personal information from you and/or third parties like local authorities and employment agencies. The categories of personal information that we may collect, store and use about you include:

• Contact information such as address, email addresses and telephone numbers;
• CV, Employment History, Professional Qualifications, Identification, Right to Work;
• Personal details of Service User: name, address and telephone number along with photo ID;
• A photograph of the Service User;
• Condition of a Service User's home;
• Religious and cultural beliefs;
• Next of kin, and their contact details;
• Completed Herbert Protocol form (for Service Users with dementia);
• House entry instructions including: directions, access to a Service User's property and key codes for the same;
• Personal medical information including past medical history, medication;
• Requirements, or whether the Client has capacity to make decisions;
• A Service User's care plans, care preferences, including whether carer's are permitted to wear footwear in a Service User's home, details of a Service User's pets, favourite activities, dietary requirements;
• Financial information such as credit/debit card numbers;
• Continuous reviews, e.g. service reviews;
• Financial information such as credit/debit card numbers;
• Biography to inform our service delivery;
• IP address (automatically collected);
• Web browser type and version (automatically collected).

5.0 How the NHS and care services use your information

We are one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public).

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

• improving the quality and standards of care provided
• research into the development of new treatments
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services
• This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law. Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out, your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care. To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit Your NHS Data Matters. On this web page you will:

• See what is meant by confidential patient information
• Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
• Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
• Understand more about who uses the data
• Find out how your data is protected
• Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
• Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
• See the situations where the opt-out will not apply

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)

You can change your mind about your choice at any time. Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

6.0 How Long we Keep Information For

We pride ourselves on ensuring that your personal data is only retained for the period that we need it for, or in accordance with laws, regulations and professional obligations that we are subject to. All personal information collected has a defined retention period, which is in-line with our retention policy. If you would like to find out how long your information is being retained, please see "additional information", section 16 of this policy.

7.0 Security of personal information

We take the responsibility for protecting your privacy very seriously and we will ensure your data is secured in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection laws. We have in place technical and organisational measures to ensure personal information is secured and to prevent your personal data from being accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. We have in place a robust access control policy which limits access to your personal data to those employees, contractors and other third parties who only have a business need to know. The processing of your personal data will only take place subject to our instruction.

We have policies and procedures to handle any potential data security breaches and data subjects, third parties and any applicable regulators will be notified where we are legally required to do so.

We have ensured that all employees have had information security and data protection training. If you would like more details of the security we have in place, please see "additional information", section 16 of this policy.

8.0 Your individual rights

In this Section, we have summarised the rights that you have under General Data Protection Regulation. Some of the rights are complex, and not all the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights. Your principal rights under General Data Protection Regulation are:

• Right to Object
• Right of Access
• Right to be informed
• Right to Rectification
• Right to Erasure
• Right to Restrict Processing
• Right to Data Portability
• Right relating to Automated decision making including profiling.
• The right to object

You can exercise this right if

• Processing relies on legitimate interest
• Processing is for scientific or historical research
• Processing includes automated decision making and profiling
• Processing is for direct marketing purposes

The right of access

• You or any third party acting on your behalf with your authority may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you without charge.
• We will ask to verify your identity or request evidence from the third party that they are acting on your behalf before releasing any personal data we hold about you.

The right to be informed

• We are required to provide clear and transparent information to you about how we process your personal data. This privacy notice addresses this right.

The right of rectification

• If you believe the personal data we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete you have the right to correct this and you may exercise this right along with the right to restrict processing until these corrections are made.

The right to erasure

• If there is no legal basis or legitimate reason for processing your personal data, you may request that we erase it.

The right to restrict processing

• You may ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data. This means we will still hold it but not process it. This is a conditional right which may only be exercised when:

Processing is unlawful

• We no longer need the personal data, but it is required for a legal process
• You have exercised your right to object to processing and require processing to be halted while a decision on the request to object is made.
• If you are exercising your right to rectification

The right to data portability

• You can request that your personal data is transferred to another controller or processor in a machine-readable format if:
• Processing is based on consent
• Processing is by automated means (i.e. not paper based)
• Processing is necessary for the fulfilment of a contractual obligation.

The right relating to automated decision making including profile

• automated individual decision-making (making a decision solely by automated means without any human involvement);
• profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain things about an individual). Profiling can be part of an automated decision-making process.

If you have any question about these rights, please see "additional information", section 16 of this policy.

9.0 Consent

Where you have given consent for processing, or explicit consent in relation to the processing of special category data, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time, but this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

10.0 Failure To Provide Personal Information

Where we need to collect personal data by law or in order to process your instructions or perform a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to carry out your instructions or perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel our engagement or contract you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

11.0 Cookies

Our website uses cookies. Please see our cookies policy for full details of the cookies used.

12.0 Automated Decision Making

Where we make an automated decision which has a legal or substantially similar effect, you have the right to speak to us and we may then review the decision, provide a more detailed explanation and assess if the automated decision was made correctly.

13.0 Transfers To Third Parties

Cera Group may disclose your personal data, listed in section 4 to some third parties to help us deliver our services/products. All third parties are contractually bound to protect the personal data we provide to them. We may use several or all of the following categories of recipients:

• Business partners, suppliers, contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you
• Companies within our group where necessary for administrative purposes and to provide services to you
• Third parties that support us to provide research, products and services e.g. IT support, cloud-based software services, providers of telecommunications equipment, recruitment agencies.
• Third party research organisations
• Marketing services providers
• Payment service providers
• Professional advisors e.g. lawyers, auditors
• Web analytics and search engine provider to ensure the continued improvement and optimisation of our website.

14.0 Transfers Outside Of The UK

In this section, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred and stored in countries outside the United Kingdom (UK).

We may share personal information to third parties outside of the United Kingdom (UK). Any personal information transferred will only be processed on our instruction and we ensure that information security at the highest standard would be used to protect any personal information as required by the Data Protection laws.

Where personal data is transferred outside of the UK to a country without an adequacy decision, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place prior to the transfer. These could include:

• Standard Contractual Clauses plus International Data Transfer Addendum
• International Data Transfer Agreement
• Binding Corporate Rules
• An exception as defined in Article 49 of the UK GDPR
• For more information about transfers and safeguarding measures, please contact us using the information in section 16.

15.0 Right to complaint

We take any complaints about our collection and use of personal information very seriously.

If you think that our collection or use of personal information is unfair, misleading, or inappropriate, or have any other concern about our data processing, please raise this with us in the first instance.

To make a complaint, please contact us via email on dpo@ceracare.co.uk

Alternatively, you can contact us:

By Post: Cera Care, Labs Hawley Lock, 1 Water Lane, London, NW1 8NZ.

By Phone: 0330 433 1537

Alternatively, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office:

By Post:

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

By Website: Click Here

By Phone: 0303 123 1113 (Local rate) or 01625 545 745 (National rate)

16.0 Additional information

Your trust is important to us. That is why we are always available to talk with you at any time and answer any questions concerning how your data is processed. If you have any questions that could not be answered by this privacy policy or if you wish to receive more in-depth information about any topic within it, please contact our DPO and Compliance Team via email on dpo@ceracare.co.uk.

17.0 Policy Review and Amendments

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated on 13/09/24 We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.