Privacy Notice - Next of Kin/Emergency Contact

The Bluebird Care Group is a franchise network of care providers across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As a network, we employ around 23,000 people, and provide care to approx. 11,500 customers.

The Bluebird Care Group is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Although you may not be an employee or customer of Bluebird Care, we may hold your personal information because of your relationship with either a customer of Bluebird Care or an employee, who has nominated you as either next of kin or their emergency contact.

Who are we and why do we need to process your personal information?

The Bluebird Care Group is a data controller of your personal information. Personal information means information that is about you or contains enough data in which we can identify you.

For emergency contact details and next of kin details, the Bluebird Care Group has a legitimate interest in processing this personal data throughout the employment of an individual, and for the duration of a care package being in place for a customer. Processing this information allows the Bluebird Care Group to maintain accurate and up-to-date employment records, care records and contact details (specifically details of who to contact in the event of an emergency).

Legitimate interest is our legal basis for storing your information. For more information on what legitimate interest is, visit the ICO website.

What kind of information is being collected?

The Bluebird Care Group will only collect and process information in relation to you as a nominated emergency contact or next of kin by either an employee of the Bluebird Care Group, or a customer of the Bluebird Care Group.

The Bluebird Care Group will only collect this information from employees or customers who have nominated you as their emergency contact and/or next of kin. This information will include your name, relationship to the individual and your contact number.

Who has access and how do we protect your information?

This information is securely stored either in a paperless filing system that is password protected and kept on a secure server, or where we use paper records, in a locked filing cabinet, in a lockable room. Access is restricted to only those who need it and will only be accessed at times deemed to be an emergency. We will decide on a case by case basis what constitutes an emergency.

We have internal policies that strictly control how we manage your personal information. The Bluebird Care Group will not under any circumstances transfer your information to countries outside the European Economic Area.

How long will we keep your information?

The Bluebird Care Group will hold your personal information for as long as either the individual is employed, or a care package is in place, or we are informed otherwise, either by the data subject themselves (you) or the employee or customer. As a data subject, you have several rights under data protection regulation. These include:

  • You are able to access all the personal information we hold about you,
  • You are able to request we change information where it is either incorrect or incomplete,
  • You are able to request we delete or stop processing your data, including the right to be forgotten,
  • You are able to object to the grounds of us processing your information, which we do so under ‘legitimate interest’.


Your rights:

If you believe that the Bluebird Care Group has not been compliant with your data protection rights, you can contact the Information Commissioner:


For further information, you can contact the Bluebird Care Group at our Franchise Support Centre on 02392 009978.