Endorsed by QCASConcerns Procedures
Concerns regarding a Personal Assistant
Personal Assistants held on the Hubs register are independent and self employed, however they are approved under the 'Quality Care Approval Scheme' (QCAS). As such all concerns are forwarded to QCAS for their attention, consideration and any resulting outcome.
If a concern is considered to be a safeguarding or of criminal nature then the appropriate Safeguarding Team and / or Police will also be notified.
1. Once a complaint is raised about a PA this will be recorded immediately by The Hub in an electronic form. This will then be stored electronically, but a hard copy may also be kept if necessary.
2. If the subject of the complaint is about abuse, neglect or harm to service users, Carers or colleagues QCAS will be notified immediately, either via telephone or email - always followed in writing.
3. If the complaint is not involving any of the above it can be resolved through existing processes this will be fully recorded, electronically where possible. This can remain with The Hub until the next monthly meeting when complaints will be discussed with QCAS.
Concerns regarding Hub Care Support
The Hub is committed to providing a high quality service to all of our clients. If something goes wrong we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.
If you have a concern, please contact us with the details. We have eight weeks to consider your concern. If we have not resolved it within this time you may raise it with the legal Ombudsman.
What will happen next?
1. We will send you a letter acknowledging receipt of your concern within three days of receiving it, enclosing a copy of this procedure.
2. We will then investigate your concern. This will involve passing your concern to our client care partner, Marrilyn Green (Director), who will review your matter file and speak to the member of staff who acted for you.
3. Marrilyn Green will then invite you to a meeting to discuss and hopefully resolve your concern. She will do this within 14 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
4. Within three days of the meeting, Marrilyn Green will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
5. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, Marrilyn Green will send you a detailed written reply to your concern, including her suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgement letter.
6. At this stage, if you are still not satisfied, you should contact us again and we will arrange for James Ritchie (Director) to review the decision.
7. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review, confirming our final position on your concern and explaining our reasons.
If you are still not satisfied, you can then contact the
Legal Ombudsman,
PO Box 15870
Birmingham
B30 9EB
about your complaint. Normally, you will need to bring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman (www.legalombudsman.org.uk.) within six months of receiving a final written response from us about your complaint or within a year of the act or omission about which you are complaining occurring (or you becoming aware of it).
For further information, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333 or at enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk.
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy explains how we use the personal information we collect about you when you use the Website and our services. If you register on the Website or by telephone as a Personal Assistant or as a Service User (someone seeking support from a Personal Assistant) or as an advocate you will provide us with personal data. We will process such personal data on the basis that it is necessary to do so in order to provide the service you have requested from us. We will process your personal data on the basis set out below as it is in our legitimate interests to do so following your registration.
What Information do we collect about you? We collect personal data about you when you register with the Website or by phone. We do so in order to provide you with the services that are available, as well as for administrative purposes.
Personal Assistant If you register as a Personal Assistant the personal data that we collect is your name, address, date of birth, Next of Kin (should you choose to elect a contact to be used in emergency situations), Training certificates / evidence of learning, email address, 3 forms of identification (to verify identity), valid DBS certificate, evidence of public liability insurance and telephone number. If you have opted to take payment from your Service User directly to your bank account, your bank account details are stored and used to generate your invoice to your Service User In order to host your personal profile the following personal information is provided by the Personal Assistant and available for public access on www.hubcaresupport.co.uk: Your first name only A picture of you Your gender About you Your specialist skills Your interests Use of own transport Yes or No Training subject status (valid or due to be refreshed) DBS status (valid DBS certificate present Yes or No) QCAS status (approved under the Quality Care Approval Scheme Yes or No) Additional Spoken Languages Preferred areas of work PA chargeable rate Users of the website will be able to search for PAs that are local to a given address. This is achieved by using the postcode suffix only, as such the the PAs location is not made public and location information is restricted to postcode area only. In order to generate your invoices to your service User(s) the following information is used: Date(s) of service delivery, time(s) of service delivery, chargeable rates, details of expenses incurred chargeable to Service User.
Service User(person seeking services from a Personal Assistant) When you contact the Hub Care Support to seek the services of a Personal Assistant we call this a referral. We would take the following details as appropriate: Person making referral - Name and preferred contact information Preferred first contact (Advocate) – Name, relationship to service user, telephone number, email address. Person in receipt of support – Gender, name, age, Local Authority reference number, address, telephone number, email address, relevant summary of disability, illness and condition, summary of support required, specialist skills required by Personal Assistant, does service user smoke, pets at service delivery address and any hazards the Personal Assistant would need to be aware of. Details of emergency contact person. Bill payer. Method of invoicing (email or post).
What do we do with your personal data?
Personal Assistant By registering with the Hub Care Support LTD it is understood that individuals are actively seeking services of a Personal Assistant and it is our role to facilitate matches between the Personal Assistant and the individual seeking their services (the Service User) We will therefore make your personal data held on your public profile available to potential Service Users. Should the Personal Assistant opt to come forward for a potential work opportunity from a Service User, the Personal Assistant understands that their public profile along with their contact details may be provided to the Service User so they may contact you in relation to the work opportunity that you has come forward for. The website processes the following data to maintain up to date information on your public profile: QCAS approval status (Yes / No) Valid DBS present (Yes / No) Public liability insurance present (Yes / No) Training and qualification in date (Yes / No) The Hub may process your information in relation to training and qualifications to highlight when training is required to be updated and to contact you to arrange update training as required. The Hub may process your data provided on your public profile to ensure you that you meet requirements of the Hub Care Support at all times. The website will inform you when your requirements are due to expire and may block access to your account if you no longer meet the requirements of the Hub Care Support. The Hub may process data provided on your public profile in order to facilitate a positive match between you and a potential service user. If data provided on your public profile is a match to the support sought by potential service user, the Hub may contact you to make you aware of the potential work opportunity. For Personal Assistants that have opted to use the services of Pay-Safe Financial Solutions. The invoice number, invoice total balance, Hub Fee for invoice, Pay-safe fee and amount to be paid to the Personal Assistant is shared with Pay-Safe to confirm correct payments are made to all parties.
Service User(person seeking services from a Personal Assistant) The following personal information of the Service User is placed on the website's 'Work Opportunities' page: Gender, a brief summary of support required, a brief summary of Service Users disability, condition or illness, special considerations, location of support required (limited to postcode suffix area) The 'Work Opportunities' page is only accessible by Hub staff and Verified Personal Assistants. This information may also be shared with Verified Personal Assistants by email or telephone: The Hub aims to match all referrals within 14 days. If the match is not successful and the referee does not wish to re-advertise the work opportunity we will remove all data held. If the match is unsuccessful and we are unable to contact the referee we will remove all personal data after a period of 6 weeks.
Marketing The Hub Care Support may use your data to contact you in relation to the services you have receive from us. Your data will not be shared with any third party for the purposes of marketing.
Data Storage, Sharing and Transfers Your personal data is stored on our servers which are in the European Economic Area. Paper copies of documents may be stored securely at our offices. In the event of a Safeguarding concern, necessary data may be shared with the appropriate safeguarding authority and / or Police. If you are a Personal Assistant who is approved with the Quality Care Approval Scheme relevant information, including complaints, concerns and feedback may be shared with the Quality Care Approval Scheme. In the event of the Hub receiving information about a Service User that may affect the health, safety or well-being of Personal Assistants that have been matched to support the Service User, the Hub may share the necessary information with the matched Personal Assistant(s) If you are an individual raising a complaint, concern or feedback about a Personal Assistant supported by the Hub Care Support, The Hub will will take your first and last name, email address, telephone number and details relevant to the concern or feedback provided. The Hub may use your personal data to contact you in relation to the concern or feedback you have contacted us about. The Hub may share this information with QCAS and / or any relevant organisation / authority that it is appropriate to share with. If we share your personal data with any third party service provider in the course of providing you with our services, those third parties are required to process your data in accordance with contracts which comply with data protection legislation.
Access to your information and correction We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up-to-date and will delete or amend any information that you think is inaccurate. Should you wish to delete your account please contact us Amendments to your account can be made by contacting us. You have the right to close your account at any time and have us delete all of your personal information unless we are in the process of responding to any complaint that you make or there is a lawful basis why the information cannot be deleted.
How can you obtain information held about you? You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information please email us at info@hubcaresupport.co.uk
Cookies Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet log and visitor behaviour information. This information is used to track visitor use of the Website, to compile statistical reports on Website activity. Cookies can't harm your computer and we don't store any personally identifiable information about you on any of our cookies. Third parties, including Facebook and Google, may use cookies, web beacons and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from this websites and elsewhere on the Internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. Users can opt out of the collection and use of information for ad targeting, the following links provide a mechanism for exercising such choice http://www.aboutads.info/choices and http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/.
Other websites Our Website contains links to other websites. This privacy policy only applies to this Website, so when you link to other websites you should review their own privacy policies.
Changes to our Privacy Policy We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we place any updates on this web page. This policy was last updated on 21/11/19.
How to contact us Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you: by email info@hubcaresupport.co.uk or write to us at Data Protection Officer, QCAS, 25a High Street, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 1BG