Privacy Policy

Who is responsible for your information

Rea Chantale Frame, trading as Private Independent Care, is the data controller for any personal information you give through this website, by phone, or while I am providing care. Postal address: 10 Bridespring Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 7EU. Email: help@privateindependentcare.co.uk. ICO registration: [ICO registration number].

I am a self-employed carer working alone. Nobody works for me. A small number of services handle your information on my behalf, and they are named below under how the form reaches me.

If you are asking on behalf of someone else

Enquiries about care usually come from a son, daughter or partner rather than the person who needs it. If that is you, please tell me only what they would be content for me to know, and let them know you have been in touch. I will explain to them directly how I handle their information at the first visit, before anything is agreed.

What the contact form collects

Your name, phone number and, if you give it, your email address. Who the care is for, what sort of help is needed, and anything you write in the message box. The page you sent the form from. And, if you tick the pass-on box, the exact wording of that box and the time you ticked it.

Because the form asks about care needs, what you write may include information about someone's health. Under UK GDPR that is special category data, which needs a higher level of protection and a specific legal basis. I treat everything on the form as though it were.

If you ring instead, I will note your name, number and what you told me, and the same rules apply.

Why I use it and the legal basis

• To work out whether I can help, reply to you and arrange a visit. Legal basis: taking steps at your request before entering into an agreement (Article 6(1)(b)). For any health information, the condition is that the information is needed to work out whether and how I can provide social care, and that I owe you a duty of confidentiality (Article 9(2)(h), with Schedule 1 paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018). This is not consent, so there is nothing to withdraw. Instead you can ask me to delete the enquiry at any time.
• To pass your name, phone number and the kind of help you asked about to other care providers if I cannot help you. Only ever if you tick the box on the form, and never any health details. Legal basis: your explicit consent (Article 6(1)(a)). If the box is not ticked, nothing is passed to anyone.
• To keep a short record of enquiries, so I can show what was asked and what I said. Legal basis: my legitimate interest in running the service properly (Article 6(1)(f)). Health details are removed from that record once the enquiry has closed, so it holds only your name, contact details and the outcome. You can object to my keeping it, see your right to object below.

How the form reaches me

This website has no server of its own. When you press send, the form goes to Web3Forms, run by Web3Creative, which forwards it to my email inbox. Web3Forms keeps a copy of each submission on Amazon Web Services for up to three years, operates from India, and uses infrastructure in more than one country. That is a transfer of your information outside the UK. It is covered by Web3Forms' data processing agreement, which includes the standard contractual clauses and the UK addendum. You can read it at web3forms.com/dpa (opens in a new tab) or ask me for a copy. Web3Forms also passes the sender's IP address and email address, but not the message, to two spam-filtering services, CleanTalk and Akismet. I delete each submission from Web3Forms as soon as it has arrived in my inbox.

My email is hosted by Namecheap Private Email, which stores the messages I receive. The website itself is hosted by Vercel, which keeps standard server logs, including your IP address, for security and to keep the site running. Vercel may process those logs outside the UK under the UK addendum in its data processing agreement, which is published at vercel.com/legal/dpa and which I can send you on request.

Who else sees your enquiry

No one outside the services named above, unless you have ticked the pass-on box and I cannot help you myself. In that case I may pass your name, phone number and the sort of help you asked about, for example personal care, mornings, Heavitree, to one or more care providers covering your area, so they can contact you. I will not pass on any health details you have given me. The provider will ask you about those directly. I will tell you I have done so, and if the enquiry is about someone else, please let them know too.

The one exception is safeguarding. If I believe someone is at risk of harm, I may share what I need to with Devon County Council's adult safeguarding team or the police. That is a disclosure the law permits to protect people at risk. Legal basis: my legitimate interest in keeping people safe (Article 6(1)(f)), or protecting someone's life where that is what is at stake (Article 6(1)(d)), together with Article 9(2)(g) and Schedule 1 paragraph 18 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The Act requires me to keep a short written policy on how I handle these disclosures, and you can ask to see it. I do not sell information, share it for marketing, or pass it to anyone for any other reason.

If I provide care for you

Once care starts, I keep records as part of doing the job properly. A written agreement. A short note at each visit of what was done and anything I noticed. A record of any medication I prompted. A note of any incident, fall or concern. A record of hours for invoicing. The originals of the visit and medication notes stay in your home, and I keep a copy.

With your agreement, or where it is necessary for your care, I may share what I notice with the family members you nominate, and with your GP, district nurses, social worker or other professionals involved in your care. The legal basis is the care agreement between us (Article 6(1)(b)), and for health details, that I am providing social care and owe a duty of confidentiality (Article 9(2)(h)). If you receive a direct payment from Devon County Council, you may need to show the council the hours I have worked. I give you the invoices and timesheets for that, and if the council asks me directly I rely on my legitimate interest in supporting your funding (Article 6(1)(f)). If there is ever an insurance claim, my insurer may need to see the relevant records so the claim can be dealt with (Articles 6(1)(f) and 9(2)(f)). My accountant sees invoices, not care notes.

How long I keep it

• Enquiries that do not lead to care: the Web3Forms copy is deleted as soon as the email has arrived. The email and any note on my phone are deleted within six months of our last contact, so that if you come back to me within that time I can pick up where we left off.
• The short record of enquiries (name, contact details, outcome): deleted twelve months after the enquiry closed. That is long enough to answer any question about what was said, and no longer.
• Invoices, hours and payment records: six years after the end of the tax year they relate to, which covers the HMRC minimum of five years after the 31 January filing deadline.
• Visit notes, medication records and the care agreement: the originals stay with you. I keep my copy for six years after the arrangement ends, so I can answer any complaint, claim or council audit, then delete it.

Maps and other embedded content

The area pages can show a map from Google. It loads only if you press the button asking for it. If you do, Google may set cookies and collect information about your visit in line with its own privacy policy. Until then, nothing from Google loads. The site does not use analytics cookies or advertising trackers.

Your rights

You can ask me for a copy of the information I hold about you. You can ask me to correct it, delete it, or stop using it while a question is sorted out.

Your right to object. Where I rely on my legitimate interests, which covers the short record of enquiries and the sharing described above, you can object at any time and I will stop unless I can show a compelling reason not to.

You can ask for the information you gave me in a form you can pass to someone else. And you can withdraw any consent you have given at any time, which does not affect anything done before you withdrew it. To do any of these, email help@privateindependentcare.co.uk or write to the address above. I will reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how I have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab) or on 0303 123 1113. I would be grateful for the chance to put it right first.

Changes to this policy

If anything here changes, the date at the top changes with it. Anything that affects how your information is used will be explained rather than slipped in.