Youth Offending service privacy notice

Everything we do with information about people who come into contact with our Youth Offending Service – such as how we collect it and who we share it with – has to comply with the Data Protection Act. A key part of this is being open about how we use information and what rights you have in respect of information we hold about you.

If anything in this notice is not clear, or if you have further queries, please get in contact with the Data Protection Officer using the details at the end.

What information do we hold?

The Youth Offending Service collects and process personal information and special categories of information. We hold information about young offenders, their family members and the professionals working with them, information about victims of crime and details of volunteers who help us manage and deliver our service.

We hold information such as names, addresses and contact details, the details of offences and the response to these, details of the support and intervention we or our partners offer, and information which is relevant to supporting offenders, their families and victims, such as health, education or employment needs. We make records of the contact that we have with those we support or work with.

Why do we have it and what do we use it for

The Youth Offending Service is delivered to meet statutory duties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. This requires the participation of partners including the council, police, health and probation services. We assess and supervise young people (10-18) subject to Court Orders, pre-Court Disposals (ie Youth Cautions and Conditional Cautions), handle Court bail and those referred by other agency who identify young people at risk of offending.

Whenever we use information, we always limit this to only the details that are needed and we ensure that it is used safely and securely. We require anyone we share information with, or who uses it on our behalf, to do so too. All staff receive training on data protection and information security and information is stored within secure IT systems.

Who we share information with and why

Cambridgeshire Youth Offending Service (YOS) is part of Cambridgeshire County Council, which has a wide range of responsibilities relating to children and young people. To carry out these responsibilities and to make sure you and your family receive the right services and support, information is shared between different departments. This arrangement covers all children’s services including children’s social care, early help, schools and other specialist services

Information will also be shared with other services (such as the Police) in particular circumstances, which are when there is a risk to the safety of you or other people or for the prevention and detection of crime.

We also share information with Courts, inspectorates of our service, regulatory bodies or people with authority to investigate complaints.

Sharing information with the right people at the right time is very important to giving the best service possible and keeping people safe. Speaking with other services also helps reduce the amount of information people have to repeat about themselves to different professionals. At times YOS staff may think it would improve the support for you and your family to ask for or share information with other services (such as the NHS). In those cases, the reasons for this will be explained to you.

When you or your family need help from us, you are usually the first and most important person we will ask to give us information about your situation. However at times, Cambridgeshire Youth Offending Service (YOS) will need to ask for information from other services who are working with you, or have worked with you in the past, so we know what support you have already had and what other services think you may need. We will also at times need to share information about you with other services to help everyone to have the most up to date and important information. This way different services can work better together to support you.

Data about you may also be used for business planning and research purposes and the wider County Council, to understand demand and to improve our services. This will always be done in a way that does not identify individuals unless that is strictly necessary.

All information sharing is done with reference to the principles set out in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Information Sharing Framework.

How long we keep hold of information for

We only keep information for as long as it is needed or to comply with the law. Young Offenders case files are kept for 25years but if a young person is looked after by the Local Authority or has been subject of a Child Protection Plan then records will be kept for 75 years. We keep information which is not part of case files for up to 6 years.

What rights you have

You have various rights around the data we hold about you.

• Right of access (to receive a copy of your personal data)
• Right to rectification (to request data is corrected if inaccurate)
• Right to erasure (to request that data is deleted)
• Right to restrict processing (to request we don’t use your data in a certain way)
• Right to data portability (in some cases, you can ask to receive a copy of your data in a commonly-used electronic format so that it can be given to someone else)
• Right to object (generally to make a complaint about any aspect of our use of your data)
• Right to have explained if there will be any automated decision-making, including profiling, based on your data and for the logic behind this to be explained to you.

Any such request can be submitted to the Data Protection Officer. Whether we can agree to your request will depend on the specific circumstances and if we cannot then we will explain the reasons why.

National Data Opt-out

Alongside your Right to Object, the NHS National Data Opt-out Programme gives you the right to opt out of your confidential patient information being used for reasons other than their individual care and treatment (such as for research and planning purposes). Patients and the public will be able to use the national system from 25 May 2018. All health and care organisations will be required to uphold patient and public choices by March 2020.

For further details, please visit the NHS website.

If you are unhappy with any aspect of how your information has been collected and/or used, you can make a complaint to the Data Protection Officer.

You can also report your concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office.