Swapping personal information for wheelbarrows and brooms at Jersey Hospice

Pictured above from left to right Paul Vane, David Lawson, Adrian Hayes & Claire Brown

Our 8 strong team focussed on shrubs and plants for two days to help support the excellent work of Jersey Hospice. The Information Commissioner, Dr Jay Fedorak and Paul Vane, Deputy Commissioner were among the team who cleaned out planters, swept paths, pruned shrubs, cleaned the water feature and spruced up the green house.

Jay Fedorak said it was rewarding to contribute, even in a small way, to the total philosophy of care and patient well-being offered by the team at Jersey Hospice.  It quickly became evident that the staff at Hospice look after both inpatients as well as a huge numbers of day patients and visitors who offered us varying gardening tips and supportive comments.

Our day job helps to raise awareness amongst our community about their personal data – when to share it and how to protect it. Our regulatory function helps us to enforce good behaviour from Jersey organisations as to how they look after our information.  Personal data includes anything that could identify a living person, for example location data, date of birth or IP address.

Pictured above from left to right Trevor Beckford, Jay Fedorak, Anne King & Sammie Gardner

Certain types of personal data is called ‘Special Category Data’ such as genetic or physical or mental health data. This type of data has to be given additional care and security. Jersey Hospice reminded us during our gardening days that they have embedded good data policies and practices in everything that they do to ensure that they are trusted by patients and their families and to comply with their legal obligations.