Privacy notice

About this privacy notice

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) set out your right to be informed about the processing of your personal data. We provide information about the processing of your personal data through privacy notices, such as this one. We may provide other information to explain our approach, at other times when collecting your personal data.

If you need this information in another format, or you can’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us. You can find our contact details at the end of this page.

About Social Work England

Social Work England is the regulator of social workers, and education and training courses and qualifications for social workers, in England. Our statutory objectives, duties and powers as a regulator are set out in the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and The Social Workers Regulations 2018.
Social Work England is a non-departmental public body, operating at arm’s length from the government. It is sponsored by the Department for Education (DfE), and has a partnership with the DfE and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

If you provide your personal data to us, or it is shared with us, through this website or through other means, Social Work England becomes the data controller for that data.

What 'personal' data means

'Personal data' means data which identifies you, or which can be used to identify you. This might be, for example, your name and address, or something more sensitive, such as your health data or bank details. Some of this more sensitive data is called 'special category data'. More information about special category data can be found under the ‘Lawful basis for processing’ section below.

Collection

Most of the personal data we process we collect directly from you. This includes, for example, if you (do any of the following):

• contact us with an enquiry, feedback, or complaint
• set up an online account and register with us as a social worker
• respond to a consultation or survey we are conducting
• provide information to us in fitness to practise proceedings or during an Education Quality Assurance inspection
• participate in a focus group or event
• work with our regional engagement leads
• communicate with us on social media

We may also collect your personal data through observation, including when you visit our website. For more information about this, please refer to our cookie policy.

We may also receive information about you from people who (any of the following):

• contact us with an enquiry, complaint or concern
• are involved in a fitness to practise case we are investigating, such as members of the public, social workers, employers and other witnesses
• respond to our surveys and consultations.

We may not have any control over what personal data is sent to us (and received by us) through such channels. However, in this privacy notice, we have described the main types of personal data we expect to receive, and how we will use it.

For the avoidance of any doubt, we do not buy or sell your personal data.

Personal data we collect from you or about you

The personal data we collect is largely determined by you, and the nature of your interaction with us (such as using our website, or contacting us with an enquiry).

The list below contains some of the information we may collect from you when you communicate with us, for example if you contact us by email, phone or through the forms on our website:

• personal contact details, including your name, address(es), telephone number(s) and email address(es)
• data that helps us to identify you, so that we can be confident we’re talking to the right person. This may include data such as your social worker registration number (if applicable), email address, or date of birth
• personal or professional opinions – for example, as part of a survey or consultation, when you talk to us on the phone, or if you raise a concern to us. You may choose to state explicitly or imply your political views, or it may be possible to infer these from the information you provide.

The above information might also be provided to us about you, for example if someone provides it to us in the course of fitness to practise proceedings.

Find out more about the information we collect about your visit to our website.

Equality and diversity data

We may ask you for equality and diversity information which we use to help meet our duties under the Equality Act 2010, and the expectations of the Professional Standards Authority. We may use the information to generate anonymised statistics. We may publish these anonymised statistics to promote discussion, and share learning.

The data we collect will be accessible by employees involved in data analysis, interpretation and reporting, and our IT team for operational purposes. We restrict access to equality and diversity data, and if you are a social worker, it will not be used to inform any decisions about your registration or fitness to practise.

You do not have to provide equality and diversity information. If we ask you for the information, we will provide the option “prefer not to say” (or similar) and the option not to answer the question. If you do not answer the question, we will record the response “no answer given” (or similar).

Some equality and diversity information may not be collected routinely, but we may invite you to provide it, or we may receive it from others about you (explicitly or by implication, for example if someone sends it to us during the course of a complaint or fitness to practise process).

The equality and diversity information we may collect includes information relating to your (any of the following):

• race
• ethnic origin
• disabilities
• marriage or civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• sexual orientation
• gender reassignment
• sex
• gender
• gender identity
• family, lifestyle and socioeconomic circumstances, such as parental and caring responsibilities

Duties and powers to require the disclosure of information

We have the following duties and powers to require the disclosure of information:

• The power under regulation 14(3) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to require persons other than the registered social worker to attend and give evidence, or produce documents, in relation to the removal of an entry from the register, where we are satisfied that the registration was fraudulently procured or incorrectly made.
• The power under regulation 15(5)(b) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – for adjudicators, in connection with an application for restoration by a person whose entry was removed from the register as the result of a removal order, to require persons other than the person making the application to attend and give evidence, or produce documents.
• The power under regulation 19(4) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – for the regulator and adjudicators to require persons other than the person concerned to attend and give evidence, or produce documents, to the adjudicators, in connection with a registration appeal.
• The duties under paragraphs 1(3)(a) and 4(1)(b) of Schedule 2 of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to require social workers to provide information in connection with fitness to practise proceedings, namely details of:
  
  • any person by whom they are, or have been, employed to provide services as a social worker or in relation to social work,
  • any person with whom they have, or had, an arrangement to provide services as a social worker or in relation to social work, and
  • any regulatory body with which they are registered.
• The power under paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – for investigators to require any person to supply information or produce documents in connection with fitness to practise proceedings.

Usage

We use your information in the course of carrying out, and in connection with, our regulatory functions.

What we use your personal data for

We use your personal data for the activities we carry out, such as (any of the following):

• regulating social workers
• regulating education and training courses and qualifications for social workers
• understanding and resolving questions, queries and complaints
• responding to requests, including subject access requests
• ensuring we operate effectively
• complying with our legal requirements
• decision making
• service planning
• statistical research and analysis
• compiling statistics
• monitoring our own performance and the impact of our work, and helping to ensure the success thereof
• providing equal opportunities
• ensuring accessibility
• contacting you for feedback about our work
• managing our relationships with stakeholders
• organising and managing events and activities
• sending you news and updates
• where necessary, the prevention and detection of crime, abuse, harassment, violence, bullying and discrimination
• investigating and assessing details of any incidents you report to us. “Incidents” may include, for example, data incidents and/or breaches on our part, or any accidents occurring on our premises
• establishing, exercising and defending legal claims
• fulfilling our duties as a prescribed person as designated under s.43F of the Employment Rights Act 1996, including those under The Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 201

How we protect your personal data

We ensure that there are legal, technical and organisational measures in place to protect your personal data. These are implemented, for example, within the software we use, the protection of our networks and devices, the contracts we put in place, and the training we provide to those who work for us or on our behalf.

Storage

How long we keep your personal data

We retain personal data in accordance with our legal obligations and regulatory functions, taking into account factors such as the purpose(s) for which it is held, the need to ensure data integrity and accuracy, the period in which legal claims, investigations or enquiries may arise, the need to retain records in the public interest, and any applicable statutes of limitation.

Some of the records we hold are of long-term historical value and need permanent preservation. This is in accordance with the duty we have to the public, to be an accountable organisation. Maintaining a record of our past actions and decisions also acts as our long-term memory and provides research materials that will meet the needs of the general public in future years.

We may decide to retain information where it is integrally linked to other information which we need to continue to hold, and where to delete it would diminish the integrity of the overall information we hold about you, or make it difficult to understand. For example, there may be intricate links between data stored in the database we use for fitness to practise cases. Deleting only one part of the data relating to a case after a fixed period of time from the creation of that data may compromise the evidence related to the case and the integrity of the data, so it may be more appropriate to delete all of the data after a fixed period of time. We may also need to consider the most appropriate date to use as for the beginning of the retention period. For example, it may be appropriate to delete data a certain period of time after a contractual relationship comes to an end, rather than the date that the individual pieces of data processed under the contract were created.

For some of the data we hold relating to social workers, we also need to consider the maximum potential working lifetime of the social worker, whether that information may need to be retained throughout that time, the potential for social workers who have left the register to return to practice, and whether information related to one social worker may need to be retained because it is relevant to another; in such cases, deletion could mean that we would not have a complete set of evidence. We also need to take into consideration historical events which have shown that some issues may only come to light some considerable time after they occurred.

In some cases, we may decide to retain data for a longer period of time than we otherwise would under normal circumstances. For example, continuing professional development (CPD) records will usually be kept for a certain period of time after the due date for submission, but may be kept for longer if they are found not to meet our requirements, and this leads to a fitness to practise process being commenced.

We manage deletion of data through a combination of automatic deletion and regular checks by the teams responsible for that data.

You can find out more about how long we keep data in our data retention schedule.

Where we store (and otherwise process) your personal data

Most of the data collected as part of your interaction with Social Work England will be stored in UK-hosted data centres. In some cases, personal data will be transferred to, and processed in, countries outside of the UK. The UK government may have made adequacy regulations, which signify that it has determined that the applicable legal framework in the destination to which the data is being transferred provides adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of individuals in respect of their personal data. Where no such adequacy regulations have been made, we will ensure that appropriate UK GDPR-compliant safeguards apply. We may do this, for example, by implementing the relevant set of contractual clauses which apply to the data transfers involved. The available sets of contractual clauses can be found on the websites of the Information Commissioner and, where relevant, the European Commission.

Data processing may occur outside of the UK, for example, where data is stored in another country, or technical support teams providing services which enable Social Work England to carry out its role have temporary access to the data in order to resolve a particular issue or query.

Your personal data will also be stored on Social Work England premises and devices, under the control or supervision of Social Work England staff or consultants, or with other third parties or data processors in accordance with this privacy notice. We take steps to ensure that we have appropriate contractual provisions in place where we transfer your personal data to a data processor.

Lawful basis for processing

Why we are allowed to collect and process your personal data

We are allowed to process your personal data for different reasons. Our lawful bases for doing so will depend on the data we are processing, and the reasons for the processing. We have set out below the lawful bases available to data controllers, and outlined the ones we rely on for our processing of personal data:

Legal obligation

This applies where we need to collect and use your personal data to comply with a legal obligation, for example under the Children and Social Work Act 2017, or The Social Workers Regulations 2018.

Public task/interest

As a public body, we collect and use personal data where necessary to perform tasks that are part of our regulatory functions or otherwise in the public interest, where there is a basis in law for doing so.

Vital interests

We may use information to protect the vital interests of you or of another person. For example, if there is a matter of life or death.

Legitimate interests

Some data controllers may rely on this lawful basis when they are processing your personal data. They can do so where processing is necessary in their legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party, and where such interests are not overridden by your interests, or fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of personal data. Public authorities cannot rely on 'legitimate interests' as a lawful basis for processing carried out in the performance of their tasks.

As a public authority, we do not rely on legitimate interests for processing in the performance of our tasks.

Contract 

We may process your personal data where necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract. Again, an example of this could be where we process personal data in our role as an employer.

Consent

We may on occasion need your consent to process your personal data. In such circumstances, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Examples of where we may rely on your consent to process your personal data are for the use of non-essential cookies on our website, or to send you certain emails such as our newsletter.

You can change your preferences about cookies in your browser. You can unsubscribe from non-essential emails by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of such emails. You can also manage certain communications preferences within your online account, if you have one. Please note that online accounts are only available to social workers or those who have applied, or are applying, to register as such.

When we process ‘special category’ data, such as information about your health, it is generally considered to be more sensitive than non-special category personal data. In order to lawfully process special category data, at least one of a set of legally-recognised conditions for processing such data must apply. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides further information about the lawful bases for processing special category data.

Sharing

Who we share your personal data with, and who we receive it from

Depending on the circumstances, we may share your personal data, or receive it from (any of the following):

• members of the public
• our employees
• consultants
• contractors/suppliers
• legal advisors and representatives
• social workers (for example, this may be necessary where concerns are raised about a social worker)
• referees, including those providing references for social workers or prospective or current employees of Social Work England
• witnesses in fitness to practise proceedings, including those who raised concerns
• healthcare professionals, including health assessors
• employers
• local authorities
• local and central government bodies
• education and training providers
• safeguarding teams, if something in the information we receive indicates a serious risk to you or another person
• other regulators, such as health and social care regulators (in the UK or elsewhere)
• NHS organisations and bodies
• non-departmental public bodies such as the Disclosure and Barring Service
• the police
• other public authorities
• the Professional Standards Authority
• businesses, such as those providing health or social care services
• courts and tribunal services
• law enforcement, including the police and prosecuting authorities
• internal and external auditors
• survey and research organisations.

This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Processing of your personal data by third parties

We share information with other people or organisations where this is necessary to carry out our statutory functions.

We will only share personal data with third parties when the sharing has one or more appropriate legal bases, and is otherwise carried out in a way which upholds data protection principles. This includes ensuring that there are adequate legal, technical and organisational protections in place when we share your personal data.

We sometimes use external lawyers to carry out work on our behalf, for example in relation to investigations and hearings in fitness to practise proceedings. Your personal data may be provided to them as necessary for those purposes.

We may share information with third parties, such as Universities and research companies, to enable them to carry out surveys or analysis on our behalf. We anonymise data where it is not necessary to share it in a way which could identify you personally.

We carry out due diligence checks on any contractors who will, or could, process personal data as part of the work they are doing on our behalf. We ensure that all contractors have a legally binding, written contract, with sufficient guarantees as required by the UK GDPR and the DPA 2018.

Internal sharing at Social Work England

Our internal systems are designed to restrict access to personal data to those who need it for their roles. We may share data internally within our organisation, where it is relevant to our functions. For example, information relevant to a social worker’s fitness to practise which is acquired as part of a complaint, event, Education Quality Assurance inspection, or other interaction, may be passed to the fitness to practise team and could be used as part of, or to initiate, fitness to practise proceedings.

In deciding whether to share information internally, we will assess whether the information is being shared for a compatible purpose in accordance with Article 6(4) of the UK GDPR, taking into account (all of the following):

• any link between the original purpose and the new purpose
• the context in which we originally collected the personal data – in particular, our relationship with the individual and what they would reasonably expect
• the nature of the personal data. For example, whether it is particularly sensitive
• the possible consequences for individuals of the new processing
• whether there are appropriate safeguards. For example, encryption or pseudonymisation
  

Data sharing with the Department for Education

In accordance with Section 54 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017, subject to the requirements of the UK GDPR, the DPA 2018, and any other applicable legal requirements, the Department for Education has the right of access to any information requested by the Secretary of State in relation to the exercise of Social Work England’s functions. As such, at the request of the Secretary of State, relevant data may be shared with the Department for Education.

Duties and powers to share information

We have the following additional duties and powers to disclose information:

• The power under section 52 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 – to publish or disclose information about any matter relating to our functions, or give advice about any matter relating to our functions, as clarified by regulations 6 and 7A of The Social Workers Regulations 2018.
• The duty under regulation 7A(1) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to disclose information to a requester where we consider that the disclosure relates to any of our functions under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and is in the public interest, provided this does not breach data protection legislation.
• The power under regulation 7A(2) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to disclose to any requester any information relating to a registered social worker’s fitness to practise where we consider this relates to any of our functions under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and provided this does not breach data protection legislation.
• The duty under section 53 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 – to co-operate with Social Care Wales, the Scottish Social Services Council, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, and any other body or person specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State for Education. The list of other bodies or people is set out in regulation 7 of The Social Workers Regulations 2018.
• The duty under regulation 8(9) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to publish, and make available for public inspection, information recorded in the register of social workers in England, in such manner and at such times as we consider appropriate.
• The duty under regulation 14(8) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to publish, and make available for public inspection, a list of all entries removed from the register of social workers in England, in such manner and at such times as we consider appropriate. The information which may be published includes the social worker’s name, reference number, date of registration previously recorded in the register, and the date of, and the reason for, the removal of the entry.
• Where a social worker has been removed from the register in accordance with regulation 14(1A) (while they are subject to fitness to practise proceedings) the regulator has a discretion to include on the list referred to in paragraph (8) of regulation 14 the particulars of the removal but must not include any information relating to the registered social worker’s physical or mental health.
• The duty arising from regulation 19(5)(e) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to publish, in registration appeals, the details of the adjudicators’ determination and the reasons for it. However, if the adjudicators’ determination is favourable to the person concerned, Social Work England is not required to publish it, unless the person concerned so requests. Alternatively, if the adjudicators’ determination is favourable to the person concerned, Social Work England may publish it if the person concerned consents to the publication.
• The duty under regulation 25(1)(c) of The Social Workers Regulations 2018 – to publish as soon as reasonably practicable the particulars of any orders and decisions made in fitness to practise proceedings, together with the reasons for them, and the particulars of any order made on review or appeal. Information about fitness to practise publications, including the length of time for which we publish outcomes, can be found in our Fitness to practise publications policy.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to notify the social worker that paragraph 1(2) applies to them.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 2 of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform any complainant of a decision that there are no reasonable grounds for investigating whether the social worker’s fitness to practise is impaired unless, in the opinion of the regulator, it is not in the public interest to do so
• The duty on the case examiners under paragraph 6(3) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the regulator, the social worker and any relevant complainant of the case examiners’ decision.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 8(4) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of an interim order.
• The duty on the case examiners under paragraph 9(3) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the regulator, social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of the case examiners’ decision to dispose of the case without further investigation.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 11(2A) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the social worker that an interim order may be made and why it may be necessary.
• The duty on the adjudicators under paragraph 11(3A) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the regulator that an interim order has been made and its terms.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 11(4) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of the terms of the order and the social worker of their right of appeal.
• The duty on the adjudicators under paragraph 12(2) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the regulator, social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of their determination and the reasons for it.
• The duty on the adjudicators under paragraph 12(3A) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the regulator of the terms of a final order and the reasons for it.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 12(4) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of the outcome of a final hearing.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 14(7) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 to inform the social worker, employer, any person with whom the social worker has a contract to provide social work services, any other regulatory body with which the social worker is registered, and any relevant complainant of the outcome of a review of an interim order.
• The duty on the regulator under paragraph 15(6) of Schedule 2 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 – when taking action upon reviewing a suspension order or conditions of practice order before its expiry, or reviewing a final order for removal, suspension, conditions of practice or a warning where new evidence relevant to the order has become available after the making of the order, or when requested to do so by the social worker, to inform:
  
  • the social worker,
  • any person by whom the social worker is employed, or with whom they have an arrangement, to provide services as a social worker or in relation to social work (where known),
  • any regulatory body with which the social worker is registered (where known), and
  • where the fitness to practise proceedings were instigated following a complaint against the social worker, the complainant.
• The power under section 41 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 – to disclose, in the circumstances set out in that section, information about a person, to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

Your rights in relation to your personal data

Your individual rights in relation to your personal data are set out in law as follows:

1. To be informed about the data we process about you 
2. To request a copy of the data we hold about you (known as a ‘subject access request’)
3. To ask for inaccurate data to be rectified 
4. To ask for data to be erased (also sometimes called ‘the right to be forgotten’)
5. To restrict the processing of your data
6. To object to the processing of your data
7. To request data portability, so as data is received in a readable format by another person or organisation

In circumstances where we are relying on your consent to process your personal data, you have the ability to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on an alternative lawful basis for processing your data, such as the public interest or compliance with a legal obligation, which does not rely on your consent, and so there would be no associated right to withdraw.

These rights may be subject to conditions. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides more information about your individual rights.

We will usually respond to requests to exercise your individual personal data rights within one month. We may extend the deadline for responding by two further months if necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of requests.

See your data

Upon request, you are entitled to a copy of the personal data we hold about you, subject to any exemptions set out in law. We may be unable to disclose information which would reveal the personal data of a third party (see paragraph 16 of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018). We may refuse to disclose information which would be likely to prejudice our fitness to practise functions (see paragraph 7 of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018).

Learn more about making a subject access request.

Correcting your data

If you have an online account with Social Work England, you may update and correct some of your personal data yourself. Otherwise, if you would like to make updates or corrections, please contact us. In some circumstances, we may not be able to agree to requests to change data. If we do not, we will explain why.

Stop us using your data

You may have the right to:

• object to data processing and ask us to stop using your personal data
• ask us to erase your personal data
• ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data.

For more information about these rights, please see the links provided above under 'Your Rights'.

If you want to ask about or exercise any of these rights, please contact us. We will respond to requests within one month. We may not be able to agree to your request, but if we do not, we will explain why. Whether or not we are able to agree will depend on the reasons we are processing your data. For example, we have to use certain types of information to carry out our regulatory functions set out at law.

Automated decision making and profiling

Our applications processes include those for applying to work at Social Work England, join the register, or renew registration as a social worker. We do not use solely automated decision making in any of our applications processes. You must, however, submit all of the documents we need before we can assess any application you make.

Please read the application forms carefully. We sometimes use personal profiles in our research, in particular to help us assess the impact of our work on different groups of people.

Data portability

Please contact us if you would like to receive copies of your information electronically. We may not be able to agree to all requests. If we cannot agree, we will explain why.

What you can do if you have a complaint

If you raise a query or complaint with us about the handling of your personal data, we will do our best to address and resolve it. You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Phone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk
Email: [email protected]