Caldicott Guardian Service

What is a Caldicott Guardian?

A Caldicott Guardian (CG) is a specialist role that sits within the senior leadership of a health and social care organisation. The role represents and champions information governance and is sometimes referred to as the conscience of the company. The role is not defined by any specific legislation and uses a range of legislation to work including GDPR, DPA, FOI, Common law of confidentiality, Health and Social Care Act and the NHS 10 data security standards. Caldicott Guardians help their organisations to ensure that confidential information about health and social care service users is used ethically, legally, and appropriately.

All health and social care organisations are required to have a CG. However, smaller organisations who don’t have the internal structure or budget to appoint one should have consideration for the CG principles or outsource the role.

Caldicott Guardian Principles

What are the benefits of a Caldicott Service?

Cost effective & efficient – no overheads as with own staff
Accountability to stakeholders and senior management/Board
Assists compliance with GDPR & Data Protection
Assurance to service users & families, maintaining their trust
Mitigates risk – avoid costly fines and legal issues

What does our service offer?

No obligation initial chat over the phone/via Teams to discuss the service offer and needs of the customer.
In-person, annual consultation and review of policies (up to 5 hours)
Specialised ongoing ‘on-call’ support and advice
Review and advise on Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
Report to senior management/Board where required
Support with incident management and reporting
Relevant data protection and legislation updates

Additional support and training can be provided at an extra cost.

Who is providing the service?

Dan Plummer, RCPA’s Project Delivery Officer. Dan is a fully trained and registered Caldicott Guardian. He has worked in social care for over 12 years and has extensive experience with data protection – most of you will know him already as he continues to provide free DSPT support to providers in Somerset.

For further information about the service

please email us at daniel.plummer@rcpa.org.uk