Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 Oct 2026

This policy explains how Understanding Care Needs Ltd collects, uses and protects personal information when you use our website or our assessment services.

Understanding Care Needs Ltd is the data controller. This means we decide how and why your personal information is used.

• Company: Understanding Care Needs Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 16272442
• Registered office: 60 Tottenham Court Road, Suite 5736a, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 2EW
• ICO registration number: 00310311757
• Contact: use the form at understandingcareneeds.co.uk/contact-us, or write to our registered office, marked "Data Protection"

Our assessments are carried out by a social worker registered with Social Work England. We are bound by professional standards of confidentiality as well as data protection law.

We hold information about three groups of people: people who contact us, the person being assessed, and professionals involved in their care or legal matter.

People who contact us or instruct us (family members, executors, solicitors): name, email, phone, location, details of the enquiry, and invoicing and payment records. This comes from you, through our contact form, phone, email or letters.

The person being assessed: name, date of birth, address, health and care information, information about their mental capacity, the decision being assessed, and our assessment findings. This comes from the person, the person instructing us, family, carers, care providers, GPs and other professionals, with appropriate permission.

Professionals: name, role, organisation and contact details. This comes from the professionals themselves or the person instructing us.

Website visitors: IP address, browser, device and pages visited. This comes from cookies and similar technology (see section 4).

We do not collect payment card details ourselves. Online payments are handled by our payment provider.

We only use personal information where the law allows it.

Answering enquiries and holding the free consultation. Legal basis: legitimate interests (responding to people who contact us).

Carrying out an assessment and writing the report or certificate (PA14, COP3, mental capacity, care needs, review of care). Legal basis: contract with the person who instructs us; legitimate interests where the person assessed is not the person instructing us.

Using health and care information about the person assessed. Legal basis: Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR, provision of health or social care by a registered professional under a duty of confidentiality; and Article 9(2)(f), establishing or exercising legal claims, including probate and Court of Protection applications.

Invoicing and taking payment. Legal basis: contract and legal obligation (tax and accounting records).

Keeping records of our work. Legal basis: legal obligation and legitimate interests (professional regulation, defending claims).

Improving our website. Legal basis: consent, given through our cookie banner.

Where the person being assessed may lack capacity, we act in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We explain the assessment to them in a way they can understand, and we share only what is needed for the purpose of the assessment.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for automated decision-making.

We share reports and certificates only with the person who instructed us, and with others where that person or the law requires it. For example, this may include the Probate Registry, the Court of Protection or a solicitor acting in the matter.

We also use service providers who process data on our behalf, under contract:

• Website hosting and contact form: GoDaddy
• Email and document storage: Microsoft 365
• Accounting, invoicing and online payment: Sage Accounting
• Website analytics, advertising and spam protection: Google (Analytics, Ads, reCAPTCHA)

We may disclose information where required by law, by a court, by Social Work England, or to protect someone at risk of serious harm.

Some providers, including Google and GoDaddy, may process data outside the UK. Where they do, this relies on a UK adequacy decision or on approved safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement. Assessment reports are not sent outside the UK by us.

Our website uses cookies to make it work, to measure visits (Google Analytics) and to measure our advertising (Google Ads). Non-essential cookies are only set if you accept them in the cookie banner. You can change your choice or block cookies in your browser settings.

• Enquiries that do not lead to an assessment: 12 Months
• Assessment reports, certificates and case notes: 7 years after the case closes
• Invoices and payment records: 6 years from the end of the financial year (tax law)

After these periods, records are securely deleted.

Records are stored electronically on password-protected, encrypted systems with access limited to the assessor. Paper notes are kept secure and destroyed once typed up.

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
• ask us to correct information that is wrong
• ask us to delete information, where we have no legal reason to keep it
• object to or restrict how we use it
• ask for your information to be moved to someone else
• withdraw consent where we rely on consent

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 1. There is usually no fee. We will reply within one month.

An attorney or deputy may make requests for a person who lacks capacity, within their authority.

Please contact us first so we can try to put things right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

We will update this page when our practices change. The date at the top shows the latest version.