How we use personal information for providing home safety advice
The categories of the information that we collect, process, hold and share include:
- Contact details of the householder (such as name, address and telephone number)
- Personal information of the householder and family members (such as age, lifestyle information, dietary information)
- Special categories of personal information (such as the existence of a hearing impairment, memory information, medication, user of an oxygen tank)
- Information regarding the interventions we have carried out
Why we collect and use this information
We use this information to:
- Record and evaluate our work
- Help you contact other services which may benefit you and improve your safety and wellbeing
We collect this information in our official authority as a Fire and Rescue Service to promote fire safety.
The collection and use of special categories of personal data is done so with the explicit consent of the data subject or in the substantial public interest of the data subject (Article 9 2 (g) of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 schedule 1 Part 2 (6)).
Storing this information
We keep this information within a database which is subject to strict security controls to ensure that access is limited to those who need to see it. We keep your information for ten years, after which time it is securely destroyed.
Who we share this information with and why
We have a responsibility to promote social well being. To do this we often work closely with other authorities. To ensure you receive the relevant services we may need to share your personal and sensitive information with other authorities and partners such as:
- Community Organisations
- Councils
- Police and other emergency services
- Voluntary Services
- Health Service
In almost all such cases we will make you aware if your information is intended to be used in this way and provide the opportunity for you to say no, except when we are required by law to pass on the information.
Where it is not possible or practical to obtain your consent to share sensitive personal information, we will only share the information if we consider it necessary to do so in our official authority or to protect your vital interests. Such interests are for the protection of life, reduction of crime and accidents and for improving health.
Where possible your information will be anonymised to remove as much detail as possible leaving only key elements to enable us and our partners to target resources to you.
Sharing information with our partners will only take place under strict data sharing protocols with tight security in terms of the transfer of information.
Access to your personal information will also be restricted to authorised individuals on a need to know basis.
Who do we get information from?
We use information from key partners to help us to better target our Safe and Well visits. We put this information into Pinpoint, a profiling system so that we can ensure that we target our Safe and Well visits to those who are most likely to suffer a fire in their home.
Under the Single View of the Customer Programme, we receive information from Wiltshire Council’s Adult Care First System. This is limited to addresses of people who are receiving a care package.
Under the Dorset Information Sharing Charter (DiSC), we receive information from local authorities in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole, on people who are in receipt of Council Tax single person discounts. This information is limited to addresses.
We receive names and addresses from Air Liquide of individuals who have an oxygen cylinder within their home and have given consent for us to provide a Safe and Well visit.
We also receive names and addresses of occupiers who have been identified as a hoarder, this data is supplied by Aster Housing.
Information provided to us by NHS England (this is provided by NHS England as part of our agreement for obtaining Exeter data so we do not have scope to change this)
NHS England, the Royal College General Practitioners and Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) in England work together to ensure preventative resources are offered to those who may benefit most. This is achieved by referrals and the sharing of information (where relevant, proportionate and necessary) to allow fire service personnel to undertake Safe and Well visits. If you require more information about how NHS England use and share your information, please click on the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-su/privacy-notice/your-information/
Research has shown that those at high risk from fire death and injury are those who are most likely to impact on a range of NHS services. Safe and well visits are developed between local health practitioners and FRSs to meet local health-risk priorities. They therefore represent an intervention which can improve people’s quality of life while reducing demand on critical services.
The majority of fire deaths in the UK occur amongst the elderly population. However, older people are most vulnerable to fire and a number of other risks. A Safe and Well visit from the FRS is proven to make them safer and can reduce risk significantly across a range of factors.
In one area of the United Kingdom where this work has been piloted since 2007, there has been a very significant reduction in fire deaths and injuries which has developed into a current trend well below the national average. So we know this work can save many lives.
The FRS and NHS will continue to work together in the future to ensure the visits undertaken by the FRS are effective in helping to make people safe and well.