How we use your personal information within the council for equality and diversity purposes (to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty)
The Council provides services for local communities and the people who live in them. Undertaking this work means that we must collect and use information about the people we provide services to and keep a record of those services. We must also know about the diversity of our workforce to ensure we are supporting them effectively. Because we collect and use personal information about individuals we must make sure that they know what we intend to do with their information and who it may be shared with.
We have summarised in this privacy notice some of the key ways in which we use your personal information for equality and diversity purposes (to meet the Public Sector Equality Duty). This information should be read in conjunction with the Council’s corporate privacy notice.
1. Who we are, what we do.
This privacy notice focuses on equality monitoring and reporting to help us fulfil our legal duties under the Equalities Act 2010. Equality and diversity work is important to us and elements are also covered in other privacy notices. For example, if a service user makes a complaint about a service in relation to a protected characteristic, this would be dealt with in line with our complaints procedure. Also, if you complain about a work related issue in relation to a protected characteristic, this would be dealt with by Human Resources.
The duties that we strive to meet under the Equality Act 2010 are referred to as Public Sector Equality Duties. To help meet these duties we undertake equalities monitoring as we need to identify and support residents, service users and staff with protected characteristics in terms of ensuring their needs are met, to tackle prejudice, promote understanding, encourage participation in public life, remove or minimise disadvantage.
Data that the organisation uses for these purposes is anonymised and individuals chose whether to disclose this information. They can also request that the organisation does not process this data for equal opportunities monitoring at any time.
Individuals are entirely free to decide whether or not to provide such data and there are no consequences of failing to do so.
Protected characteristics include:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
To help us fulfil our legal obligations, the Council has a central Diversity and Inclusion Team. The team supports the delivery of the equality and diversity agenda for the Council through provision of the Strategic Equality Plan, collation of data and reporting on our statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010. The team also provides operational day to day advice on a range of equality issues.
The team facilitates a range of internal and external groups including the Disability Forum, Perthyn (our LGBTQ+ network), Spotlight (our staff network for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff), Allies Network and Disability and Carers Network.
Services within the Council collect and use equality and diversity information about service users in order to fulfil the Council’s Public Sector Equality Duty, to make society fairer by tackling discrimination and providing equality of opportunity for all. The type of data services collect include whether you have a protected characteristic and:
- What services you use
- Whether our services meet your needs and your opinions on how they could be improved
This is to ensure that we offer inclusive services that are used by everyone and meet the needs of all our residents.
2. What and whose personal information we hold?
We collect and use personal information about:
Our workforce (i.e. current and potential employees and workers)
The type of information we collect, use and analyse includes:
- Sensitive information relating to a protected characteristic such as age, sex, disability, ethnicity and nationality, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy and maternity
- Department and salary grade
- Training
This information is primarily held in the Council’s Human Resources system and the recruitment system, it is classed as confidential.
Our citizens, residents and service users (i.e. the people who live in Rhondda Cynon Taff, visit Rhondda Cynon Taf, receive services from us)
The type of information we collect, use and analyse could include:
- Sensitive information relating to a protected characteristic such as age, sex, disability, ethnicity and nationality, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy and maternity
- Services that individuals access, their opinions about the service and how it could be improved
Members of our disability forums:
- Name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number
- Car and journey details for residents (if expenses are claimed)
- Reasonable adjustment requests for individuals
3. Where does the service get my information from?
Workforce information is obtained:
- Direct from the employee or worker, for example on recruitment application forms, staff profile audit questionnaires, surveys, training feedback forms and via information provided to the Line Manager
- We also produce our own data, for example the Council Workforce Development Team analyse information from the Human Resources system and recruitment system to produce reports
Citizen, resident and service userinformation is obtained:
- Direct from the service user, for example when they contact us or receive Council services. We may also contact service users directly for information, for example through a consultation
- If applicable, we may also get information from other sources, for example carers and parental guardians.
Disability forum member information is obtained:
- Directly by individuals, for example on a membership form or expenses claims.
4. What we will do with your personal information?
We will use this information for:
Support and guidance
- Support services in carrying out equality impact assessments
- Provide advice and guidance to a service in relation to equality matters
- Support with the resolution of complaints from staff and the public in relation to equality and diversity concerns
Reporting
- Produce management information reports to support service planning and delivery
- Produce our Annual Equality Report that will be published on the Council’s website
Equality Forums
- For internal staff forums we communicate with you via an e-mail distribution list
- Individual members e-mail addresses are not shared as members’ e-mails are forwarded under ‘blind copy’
- For external members of forums we hold the membership details on a confidential database and use this to send you meeting correspondence. We will also arrange reasonable adjustments as requested on the membership form
5. What is the legal basis for the use of this information?
Data Protection law says that we are allowed to use and share personal information only where we have a proper and lawful reason for doing so.
The lawful basis for processing personal information for equality and diversity information is:
- To undertake our official Council duties and to satisfy our legal obligations under the legislation:
- - Equality Act 2010
6. Does the service share my personal information with any other organisation?
The above information is only used by the Council for the purposes mentioned above and is not shared with any other third party organisation for equality and diversity purposes unless we are required to do so by law. Any reports generated by using this data are anonymised.
Workforce
Staff who have access to the itrent self-service portal are able to enter sensitive information about themselves, such as the protected characteristics detailed above, against their profile. This information is confidential to you and will not be shared with your Line Manager. The Diversity and Inclusion team may use the information for statistical purposes, but the information will not be used to identify any individuals.
7. How long will my information be kept?
We will only keep your personal information for as long as we need it, depending on the nature of the information. For example, if you are a member of an equality forum we only keep your data for as long as you are a member, if you are a member of staff we may keep your information for as long as you are employed by the Council.
8. Your information, your rights
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you important rights, including the right to access the personal information the services hold about you.
Click here for further information on your information rights and how to exercise them.
9. Contact us
If you have any concerns or would like to know more about how the service uses your personal information please contact us in one of the following ways:
By email : equality@rctcbc.gov.uk
By telephone : 01443 444529
In writing : Diversity and Inclusion Team, Ty Elai, Dinas Isaf Industrial Estate, Williamstown, Tonypandy, CF40 1NY