How we use and store your information

We keep and store information about you. This is known as personal data.

This includes things like:

• Your name
• Your address
• Your age

The Government has made a law to protect information about you.

This means that Optalis staff who have information about you will have to keep this information private and safe.

A Privacy Notice explains how we collect, store and use your personal information.

Where this guide says "you" it means the people we support. Where the guide says "we" it means Optalis.

What information do we collect about you?

Personal details like your name, address and date of birth.

Things that anyone who is working with you needs to know, such as how you like to communicate or any medical and health conditions you have.

We only hold information about you that we need.

How do we use this information?

We need this information to understand you and support you in the best way possible. We use the information to arrange services to meet your care and support needs.

When would we share your information?

We keep your information private and only share information about you when we need to.

We provide some support directly, but some support will be provided by other people outside of the service and Optalis. This means we need to share information to make sure services are right for you.

We will tell you what information we need to share and why.

For some information you can choose whether we share it or not.

In this case, we will ask your permission or the person who has the legal right to give permission for you. If no one has the legal right, support staff and care professionals will make the decision about sharing your information based on what is in your best interests. Family and friends views will be taken into account.

We can share information without permission if someone is in danger of harm or a crime.

Where do we store your information?

Information about you is kept securely in files in our offices and on our computers.

You can see the information that we have about you and how we support you.

You can ask to make changes to information we hold about you.

How long do we keep your information for?

We will store your information no longer than is needed, and in keeping with what the law says.

Your Legal Rights

You have a rights in relation to your personal information.

You can ask:

• for access to the information we hold about you
• us to correct information we hold about you
• us to delete or remove information we hold about you
• that we don't use your information or restrict the way we use your information
• for information we hold about you to be shared with someone else (known as a third party)

If you are not happy with how we collected, used or stored your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

To find out more you can read the full Privacy Statement about the service you get from us. Please speak to a member of your support team.