Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Home Focus Opticians is a trading name of Community Care Health Ltd (Company No. 14610026), registered in England and Wales. We are a domiciliary opticians providing NHS-funded and private home eye tests across England. For the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), Community Care Health Ltd is the data controller of your personal information.

You can contact our Data Protection lead by emailing bookings@homefocusopticians.co.uk or calling 0800 654 6934.

2. What information we collect

When you enquire about, or book, a home eye test we may collect:

• Your name, date of birth and contact details (phone, email, address, postcode).
• Information about your eligibility for NHS-funded eye care, such as whether you are housebound, in a care setting, or have a condition that prevents you from leaving home unaccompanied.
• Clinical and optical information collected during your appointment (prescription, eye health findings, medical history relevant to your sight).
• Details of any carer, family member or care home manager you ask us to contact on your behalf.
• Records of communications with our team (calls, emails, booking notes).
• Basic technical information when you use our website (see our Cookie Policy).

3. Why we use your information and our lawful bases

We process your personal data for the following purposes:

• To arrange and deliver your home eye test — performance of a contract with you, and the provision of health care under Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR.
• To deliver NHS-funded sight tests — performance of a task carried out in the public interest, and to meet our NHS contractual obligations to NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA).
• To keep accurate clinical records — to comply with our legal and professional obligations as a GOC-regulated provider.
• To respond to enquiries and to send appointment reminders — based on your consent and our legitimate interests in running our practice.
• To investigate complaints, safeguarding concerns or fraud — compliance with legal obligations and our legitimate interests.

4. Who we share your information with

We only share your information where it is necessary and lawful. This may include:

• Your GP, hospital eye service or other healthcare professionals where onward referral or continuity of care is needed.
• The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) to claim NHS payment for your sight test or optical voucher.
• Care home managers, scheme managers or carers where you (or someone authorised to act for you) have asked us to coordinate your visit through them.
• Family members or next of kin where you have asked us to share results with them.
• Trusted suppliers who help us run our service — for example, our practice management system, secure email, accountancy and IT providers — under written data-processing agreements.
• Regulators, public bodies or law enforcement where we are legally required to do so.

We never sell your personal data and we do not share it for marketing purposes.

5. How long we keep your information

Clinical records are retained in line with current Department of Health and GOC guidance — at least 10 years after your last appointment for adult patients, and until age 25 (or 26 if last entry was at 17) for patients seen as children. Booking enquiries that do not lead to an appointment are deleted within 12 months. NHS claim records are retained as long as required by the NHS BSA.

6. How we protect your information

We use industry-standard organisational and technical safeguards, including encrypted storage and transmission, access controls, DBS-checked staff, secure disposal of paper records and regular staff training on confidentiality and data protection.

7. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Be informed about how we use your data (this notice).
• Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (subject access request).
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Ask us to delete data where there is no legal reason for us to keep it.
• Restrict or object to how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent.
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113).

8. Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly. Any updates will be published on this page with a revised "last updated" date.

9. Contact us

To exercise any of your rights, raise a concern or ask a question about this policy, please contact us at bookings@homefocusopticians.co.uk or call 0800 654 6934.