As much detail as possible. While you can ask for "everything you hold", the council is only required to conduct a reasonable search of our records, which may mean you only receive some of the information held about you.

Your request might also be put on hold while we ask you to provide more details. If you are interested in receiving specific information, it helps if you make this clear. If you are aware of names and/or dates, these can help speed up the process and get you more specific information, for example my social care records from October 2022 to date.

You can receive information held up until the date of your request.

Yes, if you've misplaced a document or letter we've previously sent to you, or you've not received some information you were entitled to. This can usually be provided to you by contacting Children's services direct. This is a quicker and easier way of obtaining the information you want without the need to make a formal SAR.

Yes, the care leaver pages explains how we process care leaver requests, the types of information you will and will not receive, and what you can expect.

If you've been adopted, you can still ask for your records, but these will be processed by Adoption Central England (ACE). They can be contacted on 0300 369 0556 or enquiries@aceadoption.com

We do not hold your school records - contact the last school you attended, and they will handle the request.

Yes, you can, but you will need to provide either the written and signed consent of that person or where that is not possible, evidence of your authority to act, such as a Power of Attorney document.

You are not entitled to see someone else's information unless they have given their permission for you to do so. This applies to spouses, relatives, friends. Also, someone else cannot ask for your information unless you have given permission for them to do so, or they are legally authorised to do so.

It depends. A parent or guardian does not have an automatic right to information held about their child. The right of access to a child's data is the right of that child, not to you as their parent or guardian.

If your child is very young or unable to understand this right, a person with parental responsibility (PR) may usually be able to make a request on their behalf when the information is going to be used on their behalf, for example a parent for a child with SEN requesting the child's information to claim additional support. We consider all requests on a case-by-case basis and disclosure will depend on the circumstances and the possible impact on the child.  

If your child is mature enough to understand their right, we will need their consent to provide their information to you. We will obtain this before processing your request.

However, please be aware that we have a duty of care to all young people in Herefordshire, and we will only disclose a child's data where our professionals believe it is in the child's "best interests" to do so.

Please see the access to deceased person's records which sets out how such a request will be handled.

The information is provided free of charge. However, the council does charge a fee for further copies of the same information, please see the information requests charging policy for further details.

After the Information Governance (IG) team receives your request, it will be checked to see if your request is clear and all the information has been provided, for example ID, proof of authority to act on someone else's behalf.

If further information is required, you'll be contacted by the team to ask for more details, and your request will be put on hold until you reply.

If the request is clear and all the information needed has been provided, you will receive an acknowledgement from the team within five working days and will be given a date for when your request should be completed by.

Under the legislation your request must usually be completed within one calendar month of the request and proof of identity being received. If the request is complex, for example it involves a large quantity of sensitive information, the deadline can be extended by a further two months (three months in total). We'll let you know if this is the case.

All SARs are processed by the IG team. Your request will be assigned to a member of that team who is responsible for preparing the information for you. Occasionally we may need to speak to an officer in the relevant department to understand more about the records, but they will be advised that your request is confidential and cannot be discussed more widely.

We can refuse a request if it is unfounded or excessive, for example, if you repeatedly request the same information. We will explain why we consider your request to be unfounded or excessive if we do refuse it.

You will see all of the information about yourself contained in your records.

Information about you from professionals, any conversations or work you have completed with a professional, and discussions or decisions made that affect or affected you. Simply, if it's about you, and not anyone else, you receive the information.

There are some exemptions to this rule under the legislation which means that some things have to be redacted (or blacked out) or withheld, the most relevant to you are covered in the What we review and What we remove sections.

The type of information held by social care will depend on the amount of involvement you have had with social care. Every case is different, but the information held may consist of some or all of the following:

• Important details about you and your family such as names, address, date of birth, who your GP is, and details of any difficulties or support you may have had
• Details about each time you contacted social care
• Decisions and agreements made concerning you
• Minutes of meetings
• Assessments and reviews
• Care plans

Some of the documents will have been provided to you before by social care. We will provide you with further copies of these while we review the rest of the documents held and consider what else can be released to you.

There may also be documents shared by other agencies involved with your family, such as health services, other care agencies or the police.

When you receive your response, you'll also receive a copy of this document, and handouts which explain what some of the social care documents you might receive are and what some of the acronyms or jargon in them mean. This information will hopefully help you to understand what you have received, and what you have not received, and the reasons for that.

Duplicate documents/information

With how information is saved on the computer system there is unfortunately a lot of duplication, this is where the same, or very similar information, is written lots of times. We do our best to remove what duplication we can see so you don’t need to read the same stuff again and again.

Things people have said about me

This really depends on who has said it. Anything from professionals in the council, like social workers, will be kept in as it’s a professional opinion. Anything from non-professionals, like family members, will be checked and anything we are allowed to share with you will be.

This is the list of the most common things in a SAR that we will remove. This is known as redaction, and will appear as blacked out words, paragraphs or occasionally whole pages. Sometimes the whole document may be withheld in its entirety. As everyone's records are different, the below details a rough idea of what would typically be removed.

Other agencies and third-party information

This is any information which comes from a different place than the council. As we don't 'own' the information, we don't have permission to share with you, and you need to go directly to them if you require it. Third parties can include:

• Health and medical information
• Police

If the records contain details that identify someone other than yourself (even if they are known to you) this would be considered third party information. Third parties can include information which comes from or is about your spouse, other family members, neighbours or friends.

Documents will usually contain the names of members of staff and other professionals involved, for example in minutes of meetings, emails, reports written or decisions taken. These names will usually be known to you. However, we do remove the names of administrative staff who may have organised a meeting, set up a case file on the system, or took notes. We will also redact any information relating to the private life of a member of staff, for example details of when they are on holiday.

Court and legal documents

Documents for use in a legal case or anticipation of a legal case may not be disclosed. This information is considered to be covered by 'legal professional privilege'.

You should be able to get these direct from your solicitors or the courts. We may be able to provide you with the reference number to assist with this.

Safeguarding information

Some social care documents relating to safeguarding will not be shared with you. Professionals (like social workers) must be able to have clear and frank discussions about a case in private. However, you will be told the outcome of any decision made.

"Admin" information

This is information in your file which is for staff only. It's there to update the records system that's used, to help staff plan or request help from other areas. An example of this would be emails asking an administrator to send out a meeting invite or upload a document to a system. Although it contains information about you, the main purpose is to ensure people are invited to a meeting or a system updated, and the details about you will be recorded elsewhere.

There are rare occasions when we do not hold the personal information you have asked for. This could be for a number of reasons, for example, no information about you could be found because the records are no longer held. If we do not hold the information, we will let you know.

We will provide the information in electronic format, via secure email. If you'd prefer to have a paper copy instead, please let us know when you make the request. Paper copies are sent via recorded delivery.

When you receive your records, you'll also receive a cover letter from the IG Officer who has processed your request. This will explain if any information has been redacted or withheld and the reasons for this. These reasons are known as exemptions and are set out in the data protection legislation. You'll also receive a copy of this document.

If you've requested social care records you will also receive handouts which explain what some of the documents you might receive are and what some of the acronyms or jargon in them mean. This information will hopefully help you to understand what you have received, and what you have not received, and the reasons for that. If there is anything else in the social care file that you do not understand or if you are unsure why certain actions have been taken, please speak to your social worker or family support worker in the first instance.

The IG team cannot help if you're unhappy with the content of the information in your SAR, for example if you're unhappy with actions that have or have not been taken. If you're unhappy with the content, in the first instance you would need to speak to the service area concerned.

If you're unhappy with the SAR process or the redactions that have taken place, you can request an internal review. An internal review is where someone from the IG team, who has not looked at your SAR before, will review the whole process your SAR went through. They will write to you with the outcome of your review and tell you whether we uphold your complaint.

If there is evidence of any mistakes in how we processed your request, we will correct them and explain how we've done that.

If you're still unhappy you can complain to the ICO who may investigate on your behalf. Further information about that process can be found in the SAR review procedure

If there are inaccuracies in your records you can raise them and, depending on what the information is, it will be reviewed and could be changed, or a note will be kept with the record to show your disagreement with what has been recorded. In the first instance, please contact informationgovernance@herefordshire.gov.uk

Requests for all other types of information can be dealt with by the service area as business as usual, or under the Freedom of Information Act / Environmental Information Regulations.

You will find further information about the SAR process in the subject access request procedure or by contacting the IG team at informationgovernance@herefordshire.gov.uk