Information management, and website copyright and disclaimer

This statement tells you how we collect, manage, use, store and dispose of your provider information.

Why we collect information

We collect applicant or provider information to confirm eligibility, assess for initial and ongoing compliance requirements, inform our decision-making and gather data on Aotearoa’s social service provider sector.

Your responsibilities

To help us do our work effectively, you need to:

• give us access to your business records and your premises if we ask, in accordance with relevant legislative or contractual requirements, and
• comply with the Privacy Act 2020 and its Information Privacy Principles external when handling personal information in your care.

Important notes about personal information

• Please do not send us documents that contain peoples personal information.
• If you accidentally share such information, let us know so we can permanently delete it.

Our responsibilities

We are responsible under the Privacy Act 2020, the Public Service Act 2020, Ministry policy, and code of conduct, for handling any personal information you share with us, with care.

When we visit your business:

• We may need to see personal information, but we do not collect or store it.
• Any recording of personal information is anonymised.
• If you give us personal information by mistake, we will permanently delete it.

How we store your information

We store provider assessment information in our system, Te Kāhui Kāhu Online, which complies with:

• NZISM (New Zealand Information Security Manual external)
• PSR (Protective Security Requirements external)

This means your provider records are protected while in our care. Our system is also approved to store sensitive information that we collect, for example, Core Worker Exemption records.

When you leave our service, we archive, then dispose of your records following the rules of the Public Records Act 2005.

Who can access your information

Your provider information may be accessed by:

• our staff, for assessment purposes, and sometimes internal training purposes,
• your funding (or overseeing) government agency,
• other government agencies,
• you, through your Te Kāhui Kāhu Online portal – or you can contact us to ask us to update your information.

Legal disclosure

We are required by law to share your records when:

• a statutory investigation authority asks for access,
• a request is made under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). As a public agency, we must respond to OIA requests unless there is a legal reason not to.

Questions or concerns?

If you’re unsure about giving us your business information or have any concerns, please contact us. We want to help you feel comfortable.