Who is the data controller?
Argyll and Bute Council will act as the ‘Data Controller’ for the personal data you provide to us. The Data Protection Officer, who is responsible for ensuring personal data is managed in accordance with data protection legislation, can be contacted as follows:
Address: Argyll and Bute Council, Legal and Regulatory Support, Kilmory, Lochgilphead PA31 8RT Email: data.protection@argyll-bute.gov.uk Telephone: 01546 605522
What is Beam Notes?
Beam Notes is a secure digital tool designed to support staff in summarising, recording and managing notes from meetings and conversations with individuals.
Rather than relying on handwritten notes, staff can use a council-issued mobile device or laptop to record discussions and meetings. These recordings are securely stored and converted into a written transcript.
Using artificial intelligence (AI), Beam Notes can generate a structured summary of the conversation in line with agreed recording standards.
In addition, Beam Notes can assist with report writing by collating information from multiple interactions and populating report templates. This aims to improve consistency, reduce duplication, and support timely completion of records.
Purpose
We use Beam Notes to:
- Accurately record meetings
- Support case management and service delivery
- Ensure clear and consistent record keeping
Key Functions
- Supports more efficient and consistent recording of meetings and visits
- Enables staff to focus more on direct work with individuals and families
- Enhances the quality, structure, and security of case records
- Reduces administrative tasks and manual data entry
What information do we need?
The personal information we will process includes information that identifies you like your name, address, date of birth and postcode.
We will also process more sensitive types of personal information (special category data), ie, information about racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; genetic and biometric data, health; sex life or sexual orientation.
The information we use can relate to personal and family details; education, training and employment details; financial details; lifestyle and social circumstances; goods and services; visual images; details held in the service user record.
When Beam Notes is used, the following personal data may be processed:
- Transcripts of conversations
- Names and any personal information shared during the meeting
Why we need this information?
We use your personal information to enable us to provide you with appropriate services.
Our legal basis for using personal information
Argyll and Bute Council as data controller, is required to have a legal basis when using personal information. Argyll and Bute Council have a duty and a legal obligation to comply with the requirements of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, to assess a person’s community care needs and decide whether to arrange any services in the exercise of official authority vested in us. Another example of compliance with a legal obligation to which Argyll and Bute Council is subject to is the Children’s (Scotland) Act 1995.
When we are processing special category data our legal basis is usually that the use is necessary:
- for the provision of health or social care services
When using the Beam Notes Tool, our legal basis will be consent under Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a) of the UK GDPR and you will be asked to give your clear and informed consent before any recording takes place. You can withdraw your consent at any time before or during the meeting.
What will we do with your information?
When using Beam Notes:
- Meetings are recorded and transcribed using the Beam platform
- Once transcribed, the notes are saved within the Beam Notes platform and information is then securely transferred and stored on Argyll and Butes internal systems
- Transcripts are automatically deleted from the Beam system after 60 days
How long we will keep your information
Within Argyll and Bute Council, any information recorded or generated using Beam Notes, including transcripts, and summaries, will be managed in line with the Scottish Council on Archives Records Retention Schedules (SCARRS), adapted to meet local business requirements where appropriate. These retention schedules set out how long different types of records, including social work and administrative records, must be retained. Information captured through Beam Notes will be retained in accordance with the relevant category of record (e.g. child protection, or supervision records), rather than the format in which it was created. The relevant retention schedules can be found here and some examples are provided below.
Examples of how long we will keep your information for:
|
Reason information collected |
Minimum retention period |
|---|---|
|
Adopted children |
From date of adoption order – 100 years |
|
Child Protection Register records |
Date of birth of child – 100 years |
|
Home supervision
|
Date of birth of child – 100 years Date of death where death occurs under age of 18 – 25 years |
Transcript recordings created through Beam Notes are not intended to form part of the permanent case record. The system provider (Beam) retains recordings for a maximum of 60 days to allow for transcription and quality assurance, after which they are securely deleted in line with data minimisation principles. Practitioners are responsible for ensuring that the final written record is accurate and stored appropriately within Council systems.
Further information on data retention and destruction processes can be obtained from the Council’s Data Protection Officer.
How we protect personal information
We take care to ensure your personal information is only accessible to authorised people.
Our staff have a legal and contractual duty to keep personal information secure, and confidential. The following security measures are in place to protect personal information:
-
All staff undertake mandatory training in Data Protection
-
Compliance with the Council’s ICT Acceptable Use Policy
-
Organisational policy and procedures on the safe handling of personal information
-
Access controls and audits of electronic systems
Your rights
When you provide information to the Council, you will have the following rights:
- to withdraw consent at any time, where the lawful basis specified above is consent
- to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office – see below for details
- to request access to your personal data – please contact the Data Protection Officer if you wish to submit a request.
- to data portability, where the legal basis specified above is i) consent or ii) performance of a contract
- to request rectification or erasure of your personal data, as far as the legislation permits – please contact the Data Protection Officer and provide details of what data you wish to be rectified or erased.
You can find out more about your rights in relation to data protection here: www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/data-protection or from the Data Protection Officer by telephone or in writing, as detailed above.
Information Commissioner’s Office
The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
The Information Commissioner’s Office – Scotland
45 Melville Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7HL
Telephone: 0303 123 1115
Email: Scotland@ico.org.uk
Translation Service/ Accessibility
If you would like this information in another language or format, or if you require the services of an interpreter, please contact us.
