Cannock Chase District Council and Stafford Borough Council

We respect your privacy and recognise how important it is that your personal information remains secure when you are using our recruitment system - staffordandcannock.engageats.

This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By continuing your application with us and/or by registering your details, you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this notice. 

The data controller will be the organisation to which you make your application. This will be either 

1. Cannock Chase District Council of Civic Centre, Beecroft Road, Cannock WS11 1BG, or, 
2. Stafford Borough Council, Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford ST16 3AQ. 

Where we have referred to the Council throughout this notice, it will be the Council where you have made an application, this can be either or both Stafford Borough Council and Cannock Chase District Council.

Information we may collect about you 

We may collect and process the following data about you - information you give us, information we collect about you and information we receive from other sources: 

• You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you make an enquiry regarding a job vacancy, make an application for employment, liaise with us regarding any application or offer of employment, when you register to use our site, participate in negotiations regarding an offer of employment or any other recruitment activity. The information you give us may include your name, address, email address and phone number, contact preferences, date of birth, qualifications, educational and employment background, financial information and personal description, as well as details of the job(s) for which you wish to apply.  
• So that we are able to monitor our recruitment practices, the Council is also required to ask for information considered to be sensitive personal data or a ‘special category’ of personal data under the data protection legislation. This includes information about your ethnic or racial origin, religious or similar beliefs, physical or mental health, sexual orientation and criminal convictions. This sensitive data is requested in the Diversity and Equalities section of the application form or on the appropriate disclosure forms and is excluded from the shortlisting process. If you are successful in your application and appointed, the information will be held on your personal record. Equal Opportunities and Diversity Monitoring information will be also retained in the ATS system after the conclusion of any recruitment campaign but only as anonymised information and this does not identify you personally.
• Where an application is progressed further, we will undertake pre-employment checks in order to verify or obtain extra information, which may include background and security checks such as credit reference, NI checks, right to work in the UK, criminal record checks, academic qualification checks and employer references as relevant to the post. 
• The completion of a medical questionnaire is our other employment check. This is also regarded as sensitive or ‘special’ information within data protection legislation and can only be accessed by our Occupational Health supplier. After reviewing your form or discussing the content with you, Occupational Health provide the Council with guidance on whether you are medically fit to undertake the duties of the post you applied for.
• Cannock Chase District Council and Stafford Borough Council operate a shared service arrangement for some of its functions. In these cases personal data may be passed to authorised employees of either Council for the purposes of carrying out those functions only. It will not be used for any other purpose except as authorised by law.
• As we often work with partner organisation’s to deliver some of our services, on occasions an appropriate member of the partner organisation may also form part of the interview panel. To undertake these duties, they will have access to a copy of your application form. After completion of the recruitment process, all applications including those accessible in these circumstances will be destroyed for unsuccessful candidates in a secure manner. 
• From time to time, we also work closely with third parties (including, for example, recruitment agencies, head hunters, search information providers, and organisations specialising in psychometric testing. For the purposes of continuing your application, we may need to provide to them with information or receive information about you from them. Where this applies, we will let you know.
• Occasionally, partner organisations also advertise vacancies on recruitment system. No information is collected by the Council in this instance, it is used purely a signposting tool to the partner organisation. If you are directed to another website, we are not responsible for third party websites and you are advised to review their privacy policy.
• Your personal data is processed (including storage) within the European Economic Area only.

Uses made of the Information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

• To communicate with you, to manage our recruitment and hiring process, to determine your initial and ongoing suitability for employment, to invite you to participate in voluntary surveys so we can assess and improve the candidate experience, and to determine terms of employment or engagement; 
• To ensure compliance with corporate governance, legal and regulatory requirements;
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
• To notify you about any changes to our service;
• The information may also be included in management data used to monitor recruitment initiatives and equal opportunities, or management data responses to Freedom of Information requests. This information will always be anonymised.

Security of your data

The Council has contracted Engage ATS (Havas People) to provide and manage this applicant tracking system for us. Engage ATS use industry wide standard security measures including secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption to safeguard personal information and ensure that it is collected and stored securely against unauthorised access in accordance with data protection legislation. Engage ATS are also accredited with ISO27001 which is the international security standard for information security. 
It is important that when you register an account you:

• Keep your password confidential and agree not to disclose your password to anyone else.
• If concerned that your account could have been compromised e.g. someone has discovered your password, it is important that you change your password and contact us straight away.

Disclosure of your information 

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

• Business partners, suppliers and contractor organisations supplying services which require the use of your data for the purposes described in this privacy statement or for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you, for example occupational health; 
• Organisations specialising in the assessment of candidates, including psychometric, verbal and numerical reasoning testing;  
• To confirm factual information provided by you or to conduct necessary pre-employment checks, including contacting the referees you have supplied;
• The Council is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and to this end may use the information you have provided in your application for the prevention and detection of fraud. The Council may also share this information with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds for the same reason, or parts of the Council or other relevant organisations for purposes which may include enforcement.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Stafford Borough Council, Cannock Chase District Council, our customers, or others. 

Retention

We will retain your data during the recruitment and selection process. 

We will only retain your data afterwards if there is a legal obligation to do so (for example, for the purposes of administering the employment relationship). We may also retain your data if there is a ‘business need’, for example, retaining your application on file if a suitable vacancy arises, or for the purpose of responding to employment tribunal claims arising out of the recruitment process. 

For unsuccessful candidates, the application data will be retained for a maximum period of 12 months from the date of the application registration, and for appointed applicants your application and other information, including pre-employment information will form part of your employee file held by the Council. 

Should you wish to request a change to this normal practice, or for the information to be retained for longer than the 12 month period, please contact a member of the HR Services team. 

Alternatively, you can delete your account at any time through your user ID and password.

Please note: when an account is deleted any saved applications or any copies of communications regarding your application will be erased.

• Cannock applications please contact: humanresources@cannockchasedc.gov.uk
• Stafford applications, please contact: humanresources@staffordbc.gov.uk

Your Rights

In addition to asking for your data to be deleted, Data Protection legislation gives you the right to access information held about you (a subject access request) and to have any inaccuracies in your data corrected. 

Either request should be made to Human Resource Services through the addresses listed above. 

Further contact information

If you wish to contact us in relation to any of your information rights:

Stafford Borough Council:

Data Protection Officer at dpo@staffordbc.gov.uk or Data Protection Officer, Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford ST16 3AQ.

Cannock Chase Council:

Information Manager at infomanager@cannockchasedc.gov.uk or Information Manager, Civic Centre, Cannock Chase Council, Beecroft Road, Cannock WS11 1BG.

If you wish to complain about how your personal information has been handled by the Council then please contact the Information Manager (Cannock applications) or Data Protection Officer (Stafford applications) in the first instance using the details above.

If you are not satisfied you can submit a formal complaint to the Council via:

Cannock - Customer Feedback - Help us to get it right (cannockchasedc.gov.uk).

Stafford - the online feedback form - Contact Us

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, Tel: 0303 123 1113 or you can visit their website at ico.org.uk.

You can also find details of how we handle your personal information by visiting:

Cannock - Data Protection - Privacy Notices (cannockchasedc.gov.uk)

Stafford - Data Protection - Privacy Notices

For any general enquiries you can contact the council by phone on:

Cannock - 01543 462621, via email customerservices@cannockchasedc.gov.uk or by writing to us at Civic Centre, Cannock Chase Council, Beecroft Road, Cannock WS11 1BG.

Stafford - 01785 619000, via email info@staffordbc.gov.uk or by writing to us at Civic Centre, Riverside, Stafford ST16 3AQ.

Terms and Conditions

By registering your application and agreeing to the terms and conditions, you have agreed that all the information contained in your application may be used by us for recruitment and Human Resource purposes. This includes your consent that we can verify any of the information provided by you for recruitment purposes such as taking references and verifying educational and other achievements.

The information you provide will be used by us for administrative and management purposes, for employees and prospective employees, and for compliance with applicable procedures, laws and regulations to which we are subject. If at any time, there are any substantial changes in the way we use this personal information, we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our pages.

You agree that your personal details may be held, processed and disclosed to third parties, both electronically and manually by Stafford Borough Council/Cannock Chase District Council for the purposes of the recruitment or employment process.

You agree that we will keep your application in line with the Privacy Notice and you have the right to delete your personal data at anytime.

Once you register your details you agree to notify us of any changes to your personal data whilst you are registered on this site.

You also agree that the information provided by you is true, accurate and up to date and is in no way misleading, deceptive or inaccurate or likely to mislead or deceive.  You understand that if any of the information is found to be untrue, inaccurate or misleading, we reserve the right to withdraw any offer of employment, or to terminate any employment already commenced.