Firesetters Privacy Notice

How we use children and young person’s information in the Firesetters Intervention Scheme

Our Firesetters Intervention Scheme is aimed at children and young people who fire set, fire play or have a fascination with fire. Our trained Firesetter Advisors work with children and young people and their parents/carers/legal guardians to increase awareness of the dangers and consequences of fire and establish a cause behind the actions. The Firesetters Intervention Scheme is a voluntary scheme and we require parental/legal guardian consent for the child/young personal to participate in the programme. The cooperation of the family is crucial to the success of the programme.

The categories of the information that we collect, process, hold and share include:

  • personal information of the child/young person (such as name, address, date of birth
  • personal information of family members, carers or legal guardians (such as name, address, age of siblings)
  • special categories of personal information in the form of characteristics (such as gender, ethnicity, disability)
  • information relating to the instances of fire setting (such as referral information, assessment information, details of history of setting fires, dates and details of the interventions that we have carried out.)
  • information relating to the child Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and/or an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and other relevant behavioural information
  • Any other relevant information relating to the personal circumstances of the individual

Why we collect and use this information

Avon Fire and Rescue Service is committed to serving the local community, ensuring a safer place for people to live, work or visit. Our Firesetters Intervention Scheme is key to this and the information we collect can help influence our future work and keep people and their property safe.

We use children and young person’s data to:

  • record and evaluate our work
  • derive statistics which inform decisions about how we improve safety and support the development of our staff
  • investigate fires and other incidents
  • help you contact other services which may benefit you or improve your safety
  • deliver and manage safety courses and services for young people
  • provide feedback of interventions to the referring agency

The lawful basis on which we use this information

Whilst we seek parental/legal guardian consent for the child/young person to participate in the Firesetters Intervention Scheme, any personal data that we collect and process will be in accordance the Data Protection Legislation, which we do within our performance of a task carried out in the public interest (Article 6(e) of the GDPR). This we do when performing our function as a Fire & Rescue Service, as it is in the public interest to promote fire safety.

Any collection and use of special categories of personal data (sensitive personal data, such as health data) is also when performing duties for reasons of substantial public interest (Article 9 2 (g) of the GDPR).  When processing any special category personal data for this purpose, we need to satisfy a further condition within the Data Protection Act 2018, which is specified in Schedule 1, Part 2 (6) ‘Statutory and government purposes’, as supported by the Fire Services Act (Part 6 ‘Fire Safety’), which provides us with ancillary powers to carry out fire prevention activities within our area.

Collecting this information

Information is collected by phone or email at the time of referral and during the visit, the Firesetter Advisor will collect information which will be recorded within a case booklet. When collecting any forms of special category information, this will be explained to all parties as part of the process. 

Following the visit, AF&RS may also anonymise the personal details for statistical purposes to record, monitor and evaluate our work.

Storing this information

All information is transferred on to a database where it is stored and subject to AF&RS information security controls and policies.

In most cases, we will keep the Firesetter data until the young person’s 25th birthday. If a Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) /Educational Health & Care (EHC) Plan is in place, the information will be kept until the young person’s 30th birthday. After this time it will be securely disposed of

Handwritten notes are kept securely to assist the Firesetter Advisor in carrying out the intervention. Once the interventions have all been carried out, the notes are securely shredded.

Who we share this information with and why

We will only share information about children and young people where the law and our policies allow us to do so.

We have a responsibility to promote social wellbeing and prevent harm. To ensure you receive relevant services and we improve our own, we often work with other authorities, agencies and partners including;

  • Other fire and rescue services (anonymised data for research purposes)
  • Community organisations
  • Councils
  • Police and other emergency services
  • Social services
  • Educational services
  • Health services
  • The Home Office (anonymised for statistical reporting)

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England states that we are expected to develop partnerships to support risk reduction services to those identified as vulnerable and wherever possible to share intelligence and relevant risk data. The new Digital Economy Act 2017 further supports public sector data sharing for the purpose improving or the targeting of a public service provided to individuals or households, which includes the well-being of individuals or households, such as their physical, mental health and emotional well-being and /or social and economic wellbeing.

In the event that you have concerns about what personal data we collect and share, please discuss this with the Firesetter Advisor as we may be able to collect limited and anonymised data so that we can still deliver the intervention. The exceptions to this are when we are feeding back to a referring agency, if we have safeguarding concerns, when a criminal activity has been disclosed or when we are required by law to pass on information.

Last updated 24.02.2020