Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

The Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is a leading provider of comprehensive mental healthcare services for the West Midlands and beyond, serving a diverse population of 1.3 million. With an annual income of more than £240 million and a dedicated workforce of around 4000 staff, it is recognised as one of the country’s most innovative mental health foundation trusts. The Trust engaged The DPO Centre to assess their existing processes for handling Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs).

Challenge

• Complex DSARs
• High number of requests
• Large volumes of information

Solution

To understand the Trust’s approach, the outsourced DPO worked with the Head of Records to conduct a thorough audit to review current practices and highlight areas requiring improvement. Samples of previous DSARs were examined to allow the DPO to identify any issues and check if the requests were being handled correctly. The audit was completed in a timely manner and concluded the Trust had a robust process in place with improvements required in a few areas. Support was provided to produce alternative text for privacy notices and DSAR responses, ensuring compliance going forward. Workshop-based staff training was also given to facilitate knowledge sharing and apply the training in practical examples.

Outcome

Maria Kane, Head of Records at Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust said: : “Working with the DPO Centre has been incredible from start to finish. The audit was thorough, allowing us to delve deeply into our processes and instil confidence in our existing procedures. The advice and support we received from our outsourced DPO was invaluable and the whole team at The DPO Centre were on hand to support us every step of the way. Our staff have now realigned with the process and can effectively deal with DSARs. An extremely beneficial piece of work for our organisation.”

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