Privacy Notice - Adult Care, Housing, Public Health and NHS

If you are receiving support from Adult Care, then the NHS may share your NHS number with Adult Care.

This is so that the NHS and adult care are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care. By using the same number the NHS and Adult Care can work together more closely to improve your care and support.

Your NHS number is accessed through an NHS service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). Adult Care sends your basic information such as your name, address and date of birth to the PDS in order to find your NHS Number. Once your NHS number is retrieved from the PDS, it is stored in the Council's Adult Care Case Management System.

The NHS number has two uses as follows:

1. It is a unique identifier which enables adult care information to be displayed in the Council's Adult Care Case Management System for the provision of direct care and support, provided by in-house or independent providers.
2. It is used in an integrated care record system across a number of support services, including GPs, Hospitals, Community Matrons, District Nurses and Social Care Practitioners.

Benefits of Sharing Data

Sharing data across health and social care brings many benefits. A particular example is supporting hospital discharges by avoiding delays which can occur because details of social care involvement are not readily available to staff on the hospital ward. The hospital does not know who to contact to discuss the ongoing care that you may require.

The linking of social care and health information via the NHS Number will help hospital staff members to quickly identify if social care support is already in place and who the most appropriate contact is. Ongoing care can be planned earlier in the process, because hospital staff will know who to talk to.

The addition of the NHS Number to social care data will bring additional benefits, including:

• Better coordinated and safer care across health and social care enabled through the sharing of real-time information
• Better coordinated discharges from hospital into social care
• More time to spend on planning and coordinating social care because health staff can identify and involve social care staff earlier in the process
• Earlier intervention to maximise the opportunities of reablement services, leading to greater independence for you
• Less paperwork and more efficient use of social care resources.

Data is retained in the Adult Care Case Management System in line with the Council's data retention policies.

Download our data retention schedule

Opt-out

You have the right to object to the processing of your NHS Number in this way. This will not stop you from receiving care, but will result in the benefits outlined above not being realised. To help you decide, the Council will discuss with you how this may affect its ability to provide you with the care and support you need and any other options you have.

If you wish to opt-out from the use of your NHS Number for social care purposes, please talk with your social worker, by contacting Single Point of Access on 01709 822330 or via email or visiting our Main Reception at

Email Single Point of Access

Next Steps Evaluation

Download Next Steps Privacy Information Leaflet

Download Next Steps Privacy Notice