The client
The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (RDUH) is a large NHS Trust, providing healthcare services to the northern and eastern regions of Devon.
The nature of the personal data that RDUH collects and processes itself places a demanding burden on the organisation to ensure continued compliance with the law. Further to this, RDUH is currently undergoing a merge of its eastern and northern services, in an effort to improve the quality and access to healthcare across the county.
What did they need?
Over the last few years, and under the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic, the RDUH Information Governance Team has faced numerous pressures to ensure the continued care of its patients. Now in a post-pandemic era, and with a shift in demand, the Information Governance Team has needed to boost their skilled resources to meet legislative and regulatory requirements.
We were approached by the RDUH to provide that additional support, improve resource capabilities to address the backlog of SARs, and provide training to narrow the teams skill shortage gap.
How did we help?
DPAS was able to support the team by providing subject access request (SAR) training, offering SAR redaction services for complex SARs, and providing an onsite Data Protection Manager (DPM). The role of the Data Protection Manager is to provide a more hands-on approach within the organisation they are placed in.
In the world of data protection, there is often a short supply of skilled labour. Our DPM service can provide an interim solution to any organisation struggling to recruit the expertise they require. The tasks of a DPM will range from data breach management, to the completion of policy documentation, and support in the data protection impact assessment (DPIA) process. This service differs from our Data Protection Officer (DPO) service, as its objective is to tackle data protection on the ground, where one of our consultants goes onsite to work with the team in addressing compliance and bolstering their resource capabilities.
What the client had to say:
“On top of an already demanding workload, we had a new system integration, a merger to form a new Trust, and the impact of Covid to deal with. DPAS really helped to take the pressure off by helping with complex SARs and DPIAs. Having no idea how many SARs you may receive, having the ability to flex by using additional resources can be quite useful. Knowing I can rely on Charlotte’s support with DPIAs and data sharing agreements really takes the pressure off. It is really helpful, having someone that can take the time out to review requests.”
Rhiannon Platt – Information Governance Manager
