Employee Privacy Notice

• Data Controller: Southampton West PCN Limited 
• Data Protection Officer (or person with responsibility for data protection): Caroline Sims

Southampton West PCN Limited collects and processes personal data relating to our employees in order to manage the employment relationship. We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use that data and to meeting our data protection obligations

What information do we collect?

We collect and process a range of information about you.  This includes:

• your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number, date of birth and gender;
• the terms and conditions of your employment;
• details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history, including start and end dates, with previous employers and with the PCN;
• information about your remuneration, including entitlement to benefits such as pensions or insurance cover;
• details of your bank account and national insurance number;
• information about your marital status, next of kin, dependants and emergency contacts;
• information about your nationality and entitlement to work in the UK;
• information about your criminal record if appropriate to your role;
• details of your schedule (days of work and working hours) and attendance at work;
• details of periods of leave taken by you, including holiday, sickness absence, family leave and other types of leave, and the reasons for the leave;
• details of any disciplinary or grievance procedures in which you have been involved, including any warnings issued to you and related correspondence;
• assessments of your performance, including appraisals, performance reviews and ratings, training you have participated in, performance improvement plans and related correspondence;
• information about medical or health conditions, including whether or not you have a disability for which the Practice needs to make reasonable adjustments;

We collect this information in a variety of ways, for example, data is collected through:

• application forms, CVs or resumes; 
• obtained from your passport or other identity documents such as your driving licence; 
• from forms completed by you at the start of or during employment (such as benefit nomination forms); 
• from correspondence with you; 
• through interviews, meetings or other assessments.

In some cases, we collect personal data about you from third parties, such as references supplied by former employers with your consent only, and information from criminal records checks permitted by law.

Data is stored in a range of different places, including:

• your personnel file
• our HR management system
• our payroll system
• other IT systems (including our email system).

Why do we process personal data?

We need to process data to enter into an employment contract with you and to meet our obligations under your Contract of Employment.  For example, we need to process your data to provide you with an employment contract, to pay you in accordance with your employment contract and to administer PAYE, NHS pension/Nest, and payroll.

In some cases, we need to process data to ensure that we are complying with our legal obligations. For example, it is required to check an employee's entitlement to work in the UK, to deduct tax, to comply with health and safety laws and to enable employees to take periods of leave to which they are entitled.  For certain positions, it is necessary to carry out criminal records checks to ensure that individuals are permitted to undertake the role in question.

In other cases, we have a legitimate interest in processing personal data before, during and after the end of the employment relationship. Processing employee data allows us to:

• maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records and contact details (including details of who to contact in the event of an emergency), and records of employee contractual and statutory rights;
• operate and keep a record of disciplinary and grievance processes, to ensure acceptable conduct within the workplace;
• operate and keep a record of employee performance and related processes, to plan for career development, and for succession planning and workforce management purposes;
• operate and keep a record of absence and absence management procedures, to allow effective workforce management and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
• obtain occupational health advice, to ensure that it complies with duties in relation to individuals with disabilities, meet its obligations under health and safety law, and ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
• operate and keep a record of other types of leave (including maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and shared parental leave), to allow effective workforce management, to ensure that the Practice complies with duties in relation to leave entitlement, and to ensure that employees are receiving the pay or other benefits to which they are entitled;
• ensure effective general HR and business administration;
• provide references on request for current or former employees;
• respond to and defend against legal claims; and
• maintain and promote equality in the workplace.

Where the PCN relies on legitimate interests as a reason for processing data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the rights and freedoms of employees or workers and has concluded that they are not.

Some special categories of personal data, such as information about health or medical conditions, is processed to carry out employment law obligations 

Who has access to data?

Access to employment records is restricted to management.  

We share your data with third parties such as our Accountants, the Bank – for payroll, and when required to do so by the NHS as part of the Workforce survey. We do not share information with any other third parties.

How do we protect data?

We take the security of your data seriously.  We have internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed, and is not accessed except by its employees in the performance of their duties. 

Where the Practice engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

For how long do we keep data?

We will hold your personal data for the duration of your employment and in line with the requirements set out in the Records Management Code of Practice 2021.  The periods for which your data is held after the end of employment are set out relevant retention periods – the list below is not exhaustive.

• Bank details, next of kin etc.. - Within one month post-employment
• Unsuccessful job applicants - 6 months post the role being filled
• Right to work documentation - 2.5 years post-employment
• Opting out of the Working Time Regulations - 3 years from date on which the records were made
• Payroll/PAYE/Tax - 7 years from the end of the tax year to which records relate
• Maternity pay - 4 years from end of tax year when SMP ended
• Employment information including being able to respond to Tribunal claims and other legal claims - 6.5 years post-employment
• Health and Safety (accidents at work and related illness - 4 years from date when record was made

Your rights

As a data subject, you have a number of rights. You can:

• access and obtain a copy of your data on request;
• require us to change incorrect or incomplete data;
• require us to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing;
• object to the processing of your data where we rely on a legitimate interest as the legal ground for processing; and
• ask us to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the PCN’s legitimate grounds for processing data.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact Matt Bailey, matt.bailey2@nhs.net 

If you believe that we have not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

What if you do not provide personal data?

You have some obligations under your employment contract to provide the PCN with data.  In particular, you are required to report absences from work and may be required to provide information about disciplinary or other matters under the implied duty of good faith.  You may also have to provide the PCN with data in order to exercise your statutory rights, such as in relation to statutory leave entitlements.  Failing to provide the data may mean that you are unable to exercise your statutory rights.

Certain information, such as contact details, your right to work in the UK and payment details, have to be provided to enable the PCN to enter a contract of employment with you.  If you do not provide other information, this will hinder the PCN’s ability to administer the rights and obligations arising as a result of the employment relationship efficiently.

We are asking you to sign this document as proof that we have given you this information and that you have read and understood why we collect and process your data.