During the course of our employment activities, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust collects, stores and processes personal information about prospective, current and former staff.
This privacy notice includes applicants, employees (and former employees), workers (including agency, casual and contracted staff), volunteers, trainees and those carrying out work experience.
We recognise the need to treat staff personal data in a fair and lawful manner. No personal information held by us will be processed unless the requirements for fair and lawful processing can be met.
What types of personal data do we handle?
In order to carry out our activities and obligations as an employer we handle data in relation to:
- personal demographics (including gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion)
- contact details such as names, addresses, telephone numbers and Emergency contact(s)
- employment records (including professional membership, references and proof of eligibility to work in the UK and security checks)
- bank details
- pension details
- medical information including physical health or mental condition (occupational health information)
- information relating to health and safety
- trade union membership
- offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
- employment tribunal applications, complaints, accidents, and incident details
Our staff are trained to handle your information correctly and protect your privacy. We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practice for our record keeping and regularly check and report on how we are doing. Your information is never collected or sold for direct marketing purposes.
Your information is not processed overseas.
What is the purpose of processing data?
- staff administration (including payroll and performance)
- pensions administration
- business management and planning
- accounting and auditing
- accounts and records
- staff benefits
- crime prevention and prosecution of offenders
- education and career development
- health administration and services
- information and databank administration
- supporting staff wellbeing
- sharing and matching of personal information for national fraud initiative
We have a legal basis to process this as part of your contract of employment (either permanent or temporary) or as part of our recruitment processes following data protection and employment legislation.
We may use this information to contact you to support you in your work at SCFT.
Sharing your information
There are a number of reasons why we share information. This can be due to:
- our obligations to comply with current legislation
- our duty to comply any Court Orders which may be imposed
Any disclosures of personal data are always made on case-by-case basis, using the minimum personal data necessary for the specific purpose and circumstances and with the appropriate security controls in place. Information is only shared with those agencies and bodies who have a "need to know" or where you have consented to the disclosure of your personal data to such persons. Further information about what information we share can be requested from the HR department.
Use of third party companies
To enable effective staff administration Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust may share your information with external companies to process your data on our behalf in order to comply with our obligations as an employer.
To administer your pay and any associated contractual benefits
We use your bank details and national insurance number (or similar) so that we can make salary payments, and pension deductions, and pay tax and national insurance contributions. We may share your personal information with external service providers who manage these functions on our behalf under relevant contracts.
To manage other aspects of your employment relationship with Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
The personal information we collect and use for this purpose will include (or be included in) information about your performance at work, workforce management, succession or other forecasting information, information about absence history including sickness absence, requests for unpaid leave, accident at work records, Occupational Health Service reports, accident reports and notes of management interviews. Information may also be used to ensure that staff are offered work-related opportunities, which may be tailored to particular staff groups.
Electronic Staff Record (ESR)
Your personal information is held with the ESR. IBM, who provide ESR, and its partners as service providers will be responsible for maintaining the system. This means that they may occasionally need to access your staff record, but only to ensure that the ESR works correctly. Where this happens, access will be very limited and is only to allow any problems with the computer system to be investigated and fixed as necessary. They will not have the right to use this data for their own purposes and contracts are in place with the Department of Health to ensure that the data is protected and that they only act on appropriate instructions. IBM and the ESR Central Team may access anonymised data about transactions on the ESR system in order to support the development and optimal use of the system.
Some of your personal information from ESR will be transferred to a separate database, known as the Data Warehouse. This will be used by various Government and other bodies (listed below) to meet their central and strategic reporting requirements. It will allow them to access certain personal information to generate the reports that they need and are entitled to. The Data Warehouse is intended to provide an efficient way of sharing information. Organisations currently granted access to the Data Warehouse are; NHS Digital, NHS Employers, Health Education England and its local committees (LETBs), Deaneries, Department of Health, Welsh Government, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, Care Quality Commission, NHS Trust Development Authority, and Monitor. The government may allow further organisations to have access in the future and therefore an exhaustive list cannot be provided, however any organisation having access to your data will have a legal justification for access. See NHS England privacy notice.
To process employment or work related claims
Including grievances, personal injury and compensation claims.
To contact you or your nominated contact in the case of an emergency (either yours or ours)
We will ask you to provide us with home telephone numbers, mobile numbers and the names of people we can contact in an emergency. Where you nominate a contact for emergencies (e.g. a friend or relative) please ensure you advise them of this arrangement and where applicable, get their consent.
Pensions
We collect and use your personal information so that we can administer your pension or any other ongoing entitlements once you have stopped working for Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. We may share your personal information with external service providers who manage these functions on our behalf under relevant contracts.
Prevention and detection of crime and fraud
We may use the information we hold about you to detect and prevent crime or fraud. We may also share this information with other bodies that inspect and manage public funds.
We will not routinely disclose any information about you without your express permission. However, there are circumstances where we must or can share information about you owing to a legal/statutory obligation.
Individuals rights
Data Protection laws give individuals rights in respect of the personal information that we hold about you. These are:
- to be informed why, where and how we use your information
- to ask for access to your information
- 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
- to ask us to restrict the use of your information
- to ask us to copy or transfer your information from one IT system to another in a safe and secure way, without impacting the quality of the information
- to object to how your information is used
- to challenge any decisions made without human intervention (automated decision making)
Please visit the Pulse for further details on this. Should you have any further queries on the uses of your information, please speak to the Human Resources Department or our Data Protection Officer – Lindsay Wells.
Phone: 01273 666 473
Email:
Should you wish to lodge a complaint about the use of your information, please contact our Human Resources Department.
If you are still unhappy with the outcome of your enquiry you can write to:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
or phone: 01625 545 700
