Template: Data sharing agreement

We have designed this template data sharing agreement to support local Healthwatch to share data across an Integrated Care System with other local Healthwatch partners.

About

The agreement is designed for working together in an Integrated Care System but can be adapted for local Healthwatch working together on other issues.

How to use this template

You should customise the template to meet the needs of your group of local Healthwatch who are working in partnership.  To do this, you’ll need to refer to the ICS collaboration toolkit and the data protection guidance

You’ll need to consider the following: 

  • Whether a lead organisation is necessary: this might be needed if funding comes from the ICS for projects. 
  • Who is going to deal with safeguarding issues that arise, particularly from joint research or engagement projects?
  • Who is going to be responsible for dealing with any data subject access requests for jointly gathered data?
  • Who will be responsible for taking action on any data breaches for jointly gathered data?
  • How long will the data sharing agreement will run for? You may need to take into account the length of Healthwatch contracts to do this. 

Where part of the template is highlighted in yellow, you will need to customise the content to the needs of your group of Healthwatch.

Other actions

Do a data protection impact assessment

Each local Healthwatch will need to undertake a Data Protection Impact Assessment for sharing data across an ICS area to consider the impact of doing so, and what mitigations might need to be taken. 

Read the guidance

Update your online privacy notice

Your online privacy notice needs to be updated to include the fact that you’ll be sharing data with other local Healthwatch, what data you are sharing and with which local Healthwatch. You’ll also need to ensure that you include information on data retention periods for shared data and data gathered in joint projects. Our privacy notice template contains a relevant section for you to include.

Download the template

Download

Data sharing agreement template