Privacy Policy

This website,  https://distinguished.world (the "Website"), is owned and operated by Distinguished.World Ltd having its registered office at Distinguished Care Services Unit 1 Queens Head Chambers, 6 St Johns Road, Gt Clacton CO15 4BS.

For the purposes of Data Protection Legislation (as defined below) Distinguished.World Ltd is the data controller. References to "distinguished", "we", "us" or "our" are references to Distinguished.World Ltd.

We take the privacy of your information very seriously.

This privacy policy explains how we collect and use your personal information in connection with the provision of care services including:

• through your use of our Website (as defined below) and any or any Distinguished application that we make available from time to time or by contacting us via any means including through our Website live chat, Facebook, by email or phone;
• by being a user ("Service User") or prospective Service User of our care services including but not limited to: On Demand Care, Elderly Care, Palliative Care, Live-in Care and Dementia Care (our "Services");
• by being a person(s) arranging the care for and on behalf of a Service User ("Client");
• by being next of kin to a Service User or prospective Service user of our Services; or
• by interacting with our content and/or services including by applying to be one of our carers or employees

This policy also applies to information held about suppliers and possible future suppliers, contacts and all other people we hold information about.

This policy does not apply to our employees or carers.

References to "you" are references to any natural person excluding any of our employees data but including any users, or prospective of our care homes, any users' next of kin, any person accessing this Website.

Please read this privacy policy carefully.

Definitions and interpretation

• In this privacy policy, the following definitions are used: "Data Protection Legislation"

Means the EU General Data Protection Regulation; together with all other applicable legislation relating to privacy or data protection including but not limited to The Data Protection Act 2018.

"Cookies"

a small text file placed on your computer by this Website when you visit certain parts of the Website and/or when you use certain features of the Website. Details of the cookies used by this Website are set out in the clause below (Cookies);

"UK and EU Cookie Law"

the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulation 2003 as amended by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011;

What information we collect

From our Website users / people who contact us via the Website:

We may collect the following types of personal information (personal data) about you when you use the Website or when you correspond with us (for example, by email) for any reason:

• Your personal information collected when using our Website chat service including your name and chat history;
• IP address (automatically collected)
• Web browser type and version (automatically collected)
• Contact information such as address, email addresses and telephone numbers;
• Operating system (automatically collected), e.g. Windows or Mac OS
• A list of URLs starting with the site you entered from, your activity on this Website, and the site you exit to (automatically collected)

From our Service Users and prospective Service Users:

We may collect the following types of personal information (personal data) about you as one of our Service Users, or prospective Service Users, in order to provide you with the Services:

• Personal details of Service User: name, address and telephone number along with photo ID;
• A photograph of the Service User;
• Condition of a Service User's home;
• Religious and cultural beliefs;
• Next of kin, and their contact details;
• Completed Herbert Protocol form (for Service Users with dementia);
• House entry instructions including: directions, access to a Service User's property and key codes for the same;
• Personal medical information including past medical history, medication requirements, or whether the Client has capacity to make decisions;
• Care plans;
• A Service User's care preferences, including whether carer's are permitted to where footwear in a Service User's home, details of a Service User's pets, favourite activities, dietary requirements,
• Financial information such as credit/debit card numbers;
• Continuous reviews, e.g. service reviews.
• The personal data we collect may also include so called ‘sensitive’ or ‘special categories’ of personal data, such as details about your health or ethnic origin. Where required to by Data Protection Legislation, we will seek separate permission from you in writing to process these special categories of personal

From our clients or next of kin of Service Users

We may collect the following types of personal information (personal data) about you, as our Client:

• Personal details of our Client: name, address and telephone number along with photo ID;
• Nature of their relationship with a Service User;
• Financial information such as credit/debit card numbers;
• Biography to inform our service delivery;

From applicants to Distinguished

We may collect the following types of personal information (personal data) about you in connection with applying to be an employee or carer for Distinguished:

• your name and date of birth;
• your home address and contact details (including your mobile telephone number and email address),
• your educational (including what training courses you have completed) and professional qualifications, your right to work, visa status, employment status; and
• your experience in providing care in a professional capacity;
• what training courses you have completed;
• the type of care you are interested in providing;
• any other information about you that you disclose to us during the application process including your CV; and
• details of how you heard about

Purposes of processing and use of your personal information

Any or all of the above types of personal data may be required by us from time to time in order to provide you with the best possible services and experience when using our Website or otherwise when providing our Services.

Personal data may be used by us for the following reasons:

• internal record keeping;
• to consider your application where you have applied for a position with us
• improvement of our products/services;
• data analytics;
• to carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between you and us;
• to communicate with you;
• to administer the Website and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• transmission by email of promotional materials that may be of interest to you (where we have the right to do so);
• to contact our Clients and/or Service Users and attend their address to give care;
• to deliver quality care to the Service User;
• to take payment and grant refunds;
• to carry out data analytics including but not limited to predictive health analytics;
• to assist care workers, partner agencies and the police if the person it refers a Service User goes missing;
• to allow our carers access to a Service User's property;
• to liaise with those designated to assist in care needs, or people who have power of attorney, to help with care delivery;
• to conduct periodic reviews, phone calls, spot checks, management visits, medication supervisions, and satisfaction surveys to ensure ongoing quality care

Legal basis for processing

• Our processing of your personal data is necessary: (i) for the performance of contracts to which you will be a party and in order to take steps at your request prior to you entering into those contracts; (ii) where required by a legal or regulatory obligation; and (iii) for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by us.

Special Category Data

• We will only process special categories of personal information such as information about your health if such processing is necessary for the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services or by obtaining specific consent from you at the time we collect
• If you completed the Data Protection Consent Form appended to the Distinguished Terms and Conditions you will have provided consent in accordance with Data Protection Legislation to the processing by Distinguished of your special categories of personal

Legitimate interests

• Where our processing is based on the legitimate interest grounds described above, those legitimate interests are: (i) collecting personal information to provide you with a smooth and efficient customer experience; (ii) running our business; (iii) to provide the products and services you have requested; (iv) to prevent fraud; and

(v) for our own marketing, research and service development.

Disclosure of your personal information

We share your information with the following categories of companies as an essential part of being able to provide our products and services to you, as set out in this privacy policy:

• Professional service providers, such as marketing agencies and advertising partners who we use to send you promotional information about our products and services, and website hosts who help us run our business;
• Credit reference agencies, law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies, so that we can help tackle fraud and otherwise conduct background checks;
• Companies approved by you, such as social media sites (if you choose to link your accounts to us);
• Other business entities should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity, or if we undergo a re-organisation with that business

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.



How long will we keep your information?

• We will only keep the information we collect about you for as long as required for the purposes set out above or as required to comply with any legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g. obligation to keep records under the regulation of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Their benchmark for the retention of records is 7 years). This will involve us reviewing our files to check that information is accurate, up-to-date and still Please contact us at care@distinguished.world to get a copy of our retention policy.
• Where we are permitted to send you direct marketing communications we may retain your contact information necessary for this purpose, (provided that you have consented to receiving them) for as long as you do not unsubscribe from receiving the same from

Liquidation or Dissolution

• At Distinguished we are conscious that our primary aim is to deliver, to our Clients and Service Users, outstanding, safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led and person-centered care
• If for whatever reason Distinguished was no longer operational either by dissolution or in liquidation, personal data retained would be escrowed appropriately and ring-fenced to ensure its safe retention for the purpose of any administrative process.

Your rights

You have a number of rights concerning the way that we use your information. At any time, you have the right to:

• be informed about the processing of your personal data (i.e. for what purposes, what types, to what recipients it is disclosed, storage periods, any third party sources from whom it was obtained, confirmation of whether we undertake automated decision-making, including profiling, and the logic, significance and envisaged consequences);
• request access to or a copy of any personal data we hold about you;
• request the rectification of your personal data, if you consider that it is inaccurate;
• request the erasure of your personal data, if you consider that we do not have the right to hold it;
• ask us to restrict the purposes for which we process your personal data;
• object to your personal data being processed for a particular purpose or to request that we stop using your information;
• request not to be subject to a decision based on automated processing and to have safeguards put in place if you are being profiled based on your personal data;
• ask us to transfer a copy of your personal data to you or to another service provider or third party where technically feasible; and
• ask us to stop or start sending you marketing messages at any time by using the below contact
• withdraw consent where our processing of personal data is based on your consent

Opt-Out

• You also have the option of "unsubscribing" from our mailing list for email news alerts and updates at any time, thereby disabling any further such email communication from being sent to
• To unsubscribe just click the respective link in the footer of the updates or alerts. Alternatively, you can send an email to care@distinguished.world with the word 'remove' in the subject line and the email address that you wish to be removed within the email. In addition, each electronic mailing we send you will contain details of how you can

Automated processing

• We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling in relation to your personal

Third party websites and services

• Distinguished may, from time to time, employ the services of other parties for dealing with certain processes necessary for the operation of the Website. The providers of such services have access to certain personal data provided by Users of this
• Any personal data used by such parties is used only to the extent required by them to perform the services that we request. Any use for other purposes is strictly prohibited. Furthermore, any personal data that is processed by third parties will be processed within the terms of this privacy policy and in accordance with Data Protection

Links to other websites

• This Website may, from time to time, provide links to other websites. We have no control over such websites and are not responsible for the content of these websites. This privacy policy does not extend to your use of such websites. You are advised to read the privacy policy or statement of other websites prior to using them.

Security

• Data security is of great importance to Distinguished and to protect your personal data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure your personal
• If password access is required for certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password
• We endeavour to do our best to protect your personal data. However, transmission of information over the internet is not entirely secure and is done at your own risk. We cannot ensure the security of your personal data transmitted to the

Cookies and tracking on our Website

Our Website uses so-called “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 and to help us make recommendations that are relevant to you. We use the term “cookies” to refer to all tools that collect data on our Website (e.g. IP addresses, place and time of the visit of the users).

We also work with partners who provide us with analytics and advertising services (for our services only and not for third party advertising). This includes helping us understand how users interact with our services, providing our advertisements on the internet, and measuring performance of our services and our adverts.

For detailed information on our user tracking and the cookies we use, the purposes for which we use them and to manage your Cookie preferences see our Cookie Policy. You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser or your mobile phone.

Changes to this privacy policy 

• We may change this privacy policy as we may deem necessary from time to time or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on the Website

Contacting us and complaints

• If you have any questions about this privacy policy you may contact by email at care@distinguished.world.
  Requests to exercise your rights should be made in writing to care@distinguished.world we will respond within a reasonable period or in accordance with any statutory time limits contained in Data Protection
• If you have any concerns about our use of your information, you also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates and supervises the use of personal data in the UK, via their helpline on 01255 421621

Last updated: January 2023