Read the privacy notice for Housing Support Service.
When you are entering into Housing Support Services delivered by Dudley Council, you will need to provide us with some personal data or information.
You may have been referred to Dudley Council’s Housing Support Service, this service consists of the Generic Housing Support Floating Support Service, Substance Misuse Floating Support Service, Housing Support Intensive Family Support Service, Housing Support Employability Service, the Housing Support Telephone Support Service and Pre tenancy Workshops when looking for advice and support in order to maintain your housing support needs, if appropriate. The purpose of this service is to provide support to residents of Dudley Borough to manage their homes whether they are in council owned properties, private sector rented accommodation or homeowners.
As the 'data controller' for the personal information - or data - we hold about you, Dudley Council decides how your personal information is used/processed, and what it is used for.
This statement provides more details about how the Housing Support Services use your personal data and provides information on how to get in touch with us if you need to know more.
Personal data is information relating to a living person who can be identified from that data. Identification can be based on the information alone, or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and supplemented by the Data Protection Act 2018.
We will only collect the personal information we need to provide you with relevant information, services and support, depending on the type and level of service being provided. The personal data we will collect will include (but is not limited to):
Initial provision of Housing Support Services
• Name Address • Landline/Mobile telephone number • Email Address
Facilitating ongoing, housing support (only if relevant to your support needs)
• Gender • Ethnicity • Disability • Health Conditions • Sexual Orientation • Criminal Convictions
The information will be used to facilitate your housing support related needs. We will collect personal data to enable the provision of support and advice services.
This may include sharing your information with other service areas of the Council to enable your specific requirements to be met.
We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to or under Vital Interest. We need to process your personal data to provide you with our support services, this is known as our “vital interest” Most commonly we will use your personal information under Public Task as the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law, namely the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller, as per Article 6(1) (e) of the UK GDPR.
The legislation underpinning the provision of this service is (but not exhaustive):
• Anti-social behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 • Anti-social behaviour powers guidance – March 2023 • Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (Reformed 2014) • Care Act 2014 • Equality Act 2010 • Public Health Act 1936 and 1961 • The Children Act 1989 and 2004 • Education Act 1996 and 2002 • Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and 1982 Housing Acts 1985, 1996 and 2004 • Homelessness Reduction Act 2018 • Mental Health Act 1983, 1998 and 2007 • Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 • Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 • Learning and Skills Act 2000 • Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 • Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 • Mental Capacity Act 2005 • Code of Practice Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 • Local Government Act 2000 • National Health Service Act 2006 • Welfare Reform Act 2012 • Freedom of Information Act 2000 • The Human Rights Act 1998 • Data Protection Act 1998 • Modern Slavery Act 2015
Additional condition for processing special category data under Article 9(2) UK GDPR
For some activities, we may also need to process more sensitive personal information about you, this is known as special category data, for example health information data.
For this type of personal data, the processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller, or of the data subject, in the field of social protection law, as set out in Article 9(2) (b) of the UK GDPR and meets a condition in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018.
The legal basis under UK GDPR Article 9 (2) for special category data are:
• (c) processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent. • (g) processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, on the basis of Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject. • In some cases (a) the data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of those personal data for one or more specified purposes.
The Data Protection Act 2018 will provide a lawful basis to process criminal offence data (as required by Article 10 UK GDPR).
Article 10 of the UK GDPR allows processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences under the control of ‘official authority. The Council may therefore process criminal conviction data under Article 10, whilst exercising official authority within the meaning set out at section 8 of the Data Protection Act 2018.
To assist with meeting your support needs, it may be necessary for us to share your personal data with other parties. This will be subject to the specific issues of your needs, and only where necessary. Parties that we may have to share your data with are:
• Housing Services (Housing Management Team) • Housing Services (Housing Options Team) • Housing Services (Homeless Prevention and Response Team) • Housing Services (Income Team) • Housing Services (Antisocial Behaviour Team) • Dudley Council Children’s Services • Dudley Council Adult Services • Registered Social Landlords • Other Council Services, e.g. Environmental Health, Community Safety, Green Care • Change Grow Live (CGL – Atlantic House)
The council may also provide personal information to third parties, where it is necessary to do so to comply with the law. We will share where we are required to under UK Data Protection law (General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, Data Protection Act 2018). For example, we might need to use your information and share it with others for one or more of the following reasons:
• for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime. • to protect the public purse and to minimise waste. • it is otherwise necessary to comply with any other legal obligations
Examples of third parties who we may share your information with, where a law requires us to, include (but are not limited to):
• health bodies (NHS Trusts, GPs). • the Police. • local and central government and other public bodies. For example, the Department for Health and Social Care; and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). • other Local Authorities (other Councils). • Care Quality Commission; and • West Midlands Fire Service
The Council puts agreements in place with partners we share with to ensure we all protect your data properly and are only sharing the minimum amount of data we need to provide you with a service. More information on council services and information sharing can be found on the council's Corporate Privacy Notice.
Where we need to share sensitive or confidential information such as medical details, we will do so only with your permission or where we are legally required to. We may share sensitive or confidential information to prevent risk of harm to you or another person, for example in the case of Safeguarding vulnerable people.
We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary. Your information will be retained in line with the Council's Corporate Records Retention Schedule.
What are your rights?
The lawful basis for processing/using your personal data directly impacts which rights are available to you. For example, some rights will not apply, in this case we are not required to:
• erase your personal information. • enable the right to data portability.
However, you do have the following rights and can ask us to:
• correct your personal information if it is inaccurate. • complete your personal information if it is incomplete. • restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
You also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information.
If you would like more information on your rights and the exemptions, please see these websites:
We have a Data Protection Officer who is a council staff member whose job it is to make sure we respect your rights and follow the law. Please contact The Data Protection Officer, at information.governance@dudley.gov.uk or by calling 0300 555 2345 and asking to speak to the Data Protection Officer.
If you are unhappy with the way the Council has dealt with your personal information, you can complain to the Data Protection Officer at information.governance@dudley.gov.uk or by calling 0300 555 2345 and asking to speak to the Data Protection Officer.
If you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner: ICO Contact Us
The information we collect is required to have a complete picture of your housing and support needs and allows us to better help you. You do not have to give us your information if you do not want to. However, if we do not have this information, we may not be able to assess your needs or provide you with appropriate housing support services.
This Privacy Notice may change from time to time and will be subject to annual review.
By regularly reviewing this page you will ensure that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we share it with others.
