Care-health data

If you're receiving social care support the NHS may share your NHS number with us. This is so that the NHS and our social care officers are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care. By using the same number we can work together more closely to improve your care and support.

Your NHS number is accessed through an NHS service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). Our Social Care team sends basic information such as your name, address and date of birth securely to the PDS so they can find your NHS number. Once retrieved from the PDS the NHS number is stored on our social care system.

If you object to the use of your NHS number in this way please contact us on 0345 678 9044 or talk to your social worker.

There's also an NHS England initiative called the Child Protection – Information Sharing (CP-IS) project. CP-IS focuses on improving the protection of children who have previously been identified as vulnerable by social services when they visit the NHS unscheduled care setting.

The CP-IS project links the IT systems of NHS unscheduled care to that used by social care child teams, so that the information can be shared about three specific categories of child:

• Those with a child protection plan
• Those classed as looked after (ie children with full and interim care orders or voluntary care agreements)
• Any pregnant woman whose unborn child has a pre-birth protection plan